KOTA KINABALU: Sabah FC will be counting on home ground advantage to return to winning ways in the Super League tie against KL City FC at the Likas Stadium on Wednesday night.
The Rhinos have been unlucky since returning to action following a two-month break, collecting mere two points from three matches.
The Kurniawan Dwi Yulianto-coached side lost 0-1 to PJ City FC and drew 2-2 with Sri Pahang FC and 0-0 against Terengganu FC.
The Indonesian trainer will hope that the return of several key players will do wonder, with wide defensive players Randy Baruh and Alto Linus expected to be restored to the starting line-up having completed their one-game suspension.
Veteran Amri Yahya and Saddil Ramdani, who improved the Rhinos significantly after being introduced as second half substitutes against Terengganu FC, are also likely to be fielded.
If there is any worries, it is the fitness of Park Tae Su who missed the last game through injury while Croatian striker Josip Ivancic races against time to be fit after going off early against Terengganu FC also through injury.
There is also the need to fill in the gap left by Gabonese midfielder Levy Madinda who parted ways with the Rhinos recently.
Kurniawan, in his statement after the last game, hoped that the players would have recaptured their match fitness, especially with three competitive matches under their belts since the league resumption.
“What’s important is that all the players must stay focus and work extra hard. The team have conceded many goals due to our own mistakes and we need to prevent that from happening again in future games,” said Kurniawan after the Terengganu FC match on Sunday.
Meanwhile, Sabah FC must avoid defeat in order to keep pace with the teams above them while at the same time prevent them from being relegated.
After completing 16 matches, seventh-placed Sabah FC have collected 18 points from four wins and six draws while they suffered defeats in the remaining games.
A victory would see Sabah move ahead of KL City in the 12-team standings, with their sixth-placed opponents currently sixth on 20 points from the same number of games played.
The first round meeting between Sabah and KL City ended in a scoreless draw in early April.
Super League standings
P W D L F A Pts
JDT 16 12 3 1 39 8 39
Terengganu FC 16 9 4 3 25 14 31
Kedah DA FC 13 8 2 3 21 13 26
Penang FC 15 7 4 4 20 18 25
Selangor FC 16 6 5 5 28 25 23
KL City FC 16 4 8 4 19 16 20
Sabah FC 16 4 6 6 19 20 18
PJ City FC 15 4 6 5 11 15 18
Sri Pahang FC 16 4 5 7 20 25 17
Melaka Utd FC* 16 4 7 5 19 21 16
Perak FC 16 3 4 9 14 31 13
UiTM FC 15 0 2 13 5 34 2
*Melaka Utd deducted three points