By Our Reporter
SHILLONG: Home favourites Shillong Lajong Football Club (SLFC) will take on Australia A League team Wellington Phoenix in the final of the North East Lajong Super Series at JN Stadium, Polo, on Saturday.
The home team will aim for an improved performance against the visting team in front of thousand of homes fans.
Even though it will not be an easy task for SLFC against a formidable side like Wellington Phoenix, who had beaten them convincincly in their last encounter at Imphal by 2-5. The home team hopes that the combination of Friday Gbeneme and Sushil Kumar Singh will do wonders for the team upfront.
On the other hand, the visting team does not have many problems as their style of attacking football has paid off thus far.
During the pre-match conference, SLFC coach Desmond Bulpin admitted that it would be very difficult for his team to display a good all round performance in the final since the team has only a day off before playing this big match.
“The players need more time to recover after playing a tough contest against United Sikkim. It would be huge ask for his players to play their heart out in the match considering they are tired and exhausted,” Bulpin said.
However, he did say that his players will try to give their level best to play well, which would be much to the expection of the home fans.
There are a few injury worries for the home side, particularly with Renedy Singh and skipper John Meyongar.
“I am hoping that Meyongar would be available for tommorrow’s match. Renedy would be out of action for a longer period since his injury is quite a major one,” Bulpin said.
Meanwhile, Wellington Phoenix coach Ricki Herbert said that he is quite satisfied with the preparation of his team for the final.
“The players took a day off yesterday. But we started our training session today,” Herbert said while adding that the good part is that all his players are fit for the final.
He kept mum, however, when asked whether all seven international players in the team would play.
“We are yet to take a final call on the side which will be fielded. We will take a call on the squad [Saturday] morning,” he said.
When asked to sum up their tour of India, he said that the whole team really enjoyed what has been a memorable experience.
Commenting on Wellington’s possible future involvement in the region, Herbert added, “We are also thinking of providing a scholarship to some of the young players to come for training in Australia. We have to first work out the criteria on the scholarship.”