By FRANCIS XAVIER
KOTA KINABALU: Sabah’s win over Sarawak last Saturday wasn’t pretty, but it was enough to ensure Tambadau kept up the pressure in their chase for Super League promotion. Tomorrow, Tambadau will play their third home fixture and expectations will be high for them to get their winning run going, especially when they have lowly PDRM to beat. PDRM are one of the only two teams that are still winless after four matches into the season.
The other being UKM FC. They are currently languishing at the bottom of the 11-team Premier League standings with a mere one point from the one-all draw against Negeri Sembilan. They were beaten 3-1 by UiTM FC in the season opener and were edged by Penang and Selangor United FC with an identical score of 1-0 in their two previous matches. For Tambadau, they will be going into the 8.15pm tie at the back of their back-to-back wins over Terengganu FC II (3-1) and Sarawak (2-1). Team spirit will be high in the Tambadau camp.
And that is not all, as they will also be handed a major boost with the return of Brazilian striker Luiz Carlos Junior from muscle pain in his right thigh. Team manager Henry Saimpon said Junior, who missed the Borneo Derby, will be up for options. “His return to the team is timely because his replacement, Ricco Nigel Milus, will have to sit out the PDRM clash due to suspension. He will miss the clash after collecting three yellow cards and will be serving a one-match suspension,” said Henry when met yesterday.
“It’s normal for any team to lose one or two players due to suspension or injury. So we need to prepare ourselves to overcome this kind of situation,” he added. The rest of the players, Henry said are available, including Tambadau three other import players namely Serbian duo of Rodoljub Paunovic and Luka Milunovic as well as Korean defender Park Taesu. He was also happy to note that the team are pretty much looking forward to their next game.
“The environment in the team is very positive and in good shape. The team have started to show some improvement from game to game which is good to see,” he said. “We started our season on a slow note, but this is due to the short preparations that we had and lack of pre-season matches due to time constraints. But after four matches, we can see the combination among the players is getting better,” he added.
“Against PDRM, I’m quite confident the team will put up a better show and I hope they will be able to maintain their winning momentum to ensure that we remain on the right track,” added Henry. Henry also calls on the local fans to come in full force to support the team. He said ticket counters will be opened on match day from 10am. Tambadau are currently third in the standings on seven points from two wins and one draw.
