Contenders set to break free

By Ajitpal Singh

THE Premier Division of the Malaysian Hockey League (MHL) resumes today after a two-week break with the top contenders hoping to consolidate their title aspirations.
All teams, except for last season's Division One champions UiTM and Universiti Kuala Lumpur (UniKL)-TRC, will play two matches each this weekend.
Sapura, after hammering ATM-Airod 7-2 in the opening match on Dec 18, are full of confidence and they hope to extend their winning ways against last year's league champions the Kuala Lumpur Hockey Club (KLHC) in a crucial encounter today and Nur Insafi on Sunday.
Coach I. Vikneswaran expects his team to be even better prepared for both matches.
"We defeated ATM convincingly despite not having the entire team training as a unit before the match. Our foreign signings only arrived a day before and despite the shortcoming, we won easily," said Vikneswaran.
"I managed to get everyone in training during the two-week break. The understanding among the players has improved tremendously since the first match. I expect them to be better in both matches."
Among the aces in the Sapura side are Pakistan's Rehan Butt, South Korea's Lim Woo Guen, S. Kuhan and the Mohan brothers, Jiwa and Jivan.
Vikneswaran's confidence over the team's expected display this weekend is bad news for KLHC, who cannot afford to drop points after going down 2-0 to Tenaga Nasional in their opening match.
KLHC will face Yayasan Negri Sembilan (YNS) on Sunday, in their second match of the weekend.
Coach K. Dharmaraj said his team players have been working hard in training to brush up their tactics.
"I have told my players that they must play to win as dropping points this weekend is not an option.
"Although, the league is only one match old, the competition is stiff and we must start winning again," he said.
UniKL-TRC, who are also title contenders, face a tricky encounter against YNS today.
Coach Darren Smith said his team must not allow YNS to dictate the flow of the game as they are a strong side.
"We need to pay special attention to Shakeel Abbasi as he showed in the match against Maybank that he can do the damage.
"Then there is Waqas (Sharif) who can also create scoring chances with Prabhjot (Singh) very nippy on the left flank.
"I was impressed with Muhamad Imran as he is deadly in penalty corners. Overall it will be tough against YNS as from what I saw, they have the best team in the MHL so far.
"A good mixture of top Pakistani and Indian players are no easy team to play against," said Smith.
As for Maybank, their coach, Wallace Tan, hopes his team will get back to their winning ways after going down tamely to YNS (4-1) on Dec 18.
Maybank face TNB today and UiTM on Sunday.
"TNB are the favourites as they have a team of good mixture of experienced and junior players. Our defence must not give away penalty corners cheaply as they have drag flick expert Amin Rahim in their side.
"We have learnt a lot from our defeat to YNS and spent the last two weeks improving our tackling as well as working on set pieces," he added.