Football
Teo Teng Kiat 9y

S.League: Stanely eager for Home United to return to winning ways

Home United attacker Stanely Ng is eager for his side to pick up more victories in this season's Great Eastern Yeo's S.League, starting with their upcoming clash against the Courts Young Lions on Tuesday night.

With only two wins in eight games so far, the uniformed giants sit in fifth spot and are already eight points behind early pace-setters Warriors FC.

The Protectors last picked up three points when they beat Balestier Khalsa 3-1 earlier this month, before subsequently losing 1-0 to Harimau Muda and drawing 0-0 with Albirex Niigata (S).

Their opponents on Tuesday are bottom of the table, having garnered a solitary point in six matches. Ng, who netted his first goal for the club against the Tigers, knows facing them is a good opportunity for them to return to winning ways.

"I feel a little disheartened as the team could have done better so far but as you know, this is a newly re-formed team," he told ESPN FC, pointing to their revamp in playing staff and head coach for this campaign.

"It would be good to get a win and it is important [for us to do it]."

Ng added that the presence of captain Noh Rahman and star forward Ken Ilso have been missed, with the injured duo having sat out the last four games. The latter could possibly return in this match and will be a major boost to the Protectors' attack if he does.

Meanwhile, Irfan Fandi could feature for Aide Iskandar's charges having missed the last match due to injury and help to shore up a leaky defence that has leaked 12 goals and lost Shakir Hamzah to the LionsXII.

At the other end, only three goals have been scored, though starlet Adam Swandi will be aiming to push on after a goal-scoring display last time out against Warriors FC.

Finding the back of the net more often is also on Ng's mind, as the 22-year-old looks to build on some impressive displays so far and he said: "I will work on converting more chances into goals and there are also many things for me to improve on."

Ng has been involved in all of Home's league matches - five of those being starts -- and his lively performances led coach Philippe Aw to describe him as "impeccable" earlier this season.

Such good form also saw Ng being named in the provisional 30-man squad for the upcoming SEA Games and he expressed his gratitude for Aw's belief in youth.

The latter was promoted to head coach after the resignation of Lee Lim-saeng and he has handed youngsters like Nur Hizami, R. Aaravin and Sufianto Salleh their fair share of first-team opportunities.

"It's good that the youngsters are getting decent playing time as we are the next generation of [local] football," Ng asserted. "We will do our best on the field in order to repay his faith."

Home United Probable Lineup: Hyrulnizam Juma'at, Ang Zhiwei, Abdil Qaiyyim, Sirina Camara, Juma'at Jantan, Song Ui-young, Yasir Hanapi, Kamel Ramdani, Stanely Ng, Fazli Ayob, Nur Hizami

Courts Young Lions Probable Lineup: Rudy Khairullah, Al-Qaasimy Rahman, Irfan Fandi, Amirul Adli, Taufiq Muqminin, M. Anumanthan, Pravin Gunasegaran, Shameer Aziq, Shahfiq Ghani, Adam Swandi, Iqbal Hussain

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