Crocs hoping to sink teeth into Southern Tigers at home

SHAH ALAM: Victory breeds confidence. Even if it’s just your second win of the season.

And it’s no different with Sarawak – not even if your next opponents are the defending champions, Johor Darul Ta’zim (JDT).

Coach David Usop, whose team beat club side PKNS 3-2 in the Super League last week, is confident that his Crocs can get their first home win in the league when they take on the Southern Tigers at the State Stadium tonight.

The win over PKNS was Sarawak’s second in the Super League after defeats to Kedah (3-2) on Jan 27, Pahang (1-0) Feb 4 and Malacca (1-0) Feb 18. Their only other win was against Penang (1-0) on Feb 11.

Sarawak are in ninth place in the 12-team Super League standings with seven points from six matches. JDT, who have a game in hand, are fifth with eight points.

“The win over PKNS has boosted our confidence as we seek to get a win at home. We’ve been playing good football ... we just couldn’t get the desired results. Against PKNS, we played well and got the result we wanted,” said David.

“I hope that win will inspire us to get our first Super League win at home. We had problems scoring before, but it’s all sorted now as our strikers seem to have found their form.”

The coach is clearly delighted with the burgeoning partnership between towering strikers Mark Hartmann of the Philippines and Croatian Mateo Roskam. The duo have scored five goals between them in the Super League and are expected to torment the JDT backline.

Both strikers were in red-hot form in the FA Cup second round match against Premier League’s Mifa on Feb 14. While the 1.82m tall Hartmann scored a hat-trick in the 6-3 win, the 1.87m tall Roskam netted a brace.

“Hartmann is performing now and has scored six goals in six matches. We have given him a free role behind Roskam and their partnership is beginning to flourish,” said David.

Sarawak, however, had better keep an eye on JDT’s very own in-form striker Gabriel Guerra, who fired a hat-trick in the 3-0 Super League win over T-Team last Saturday.

“We all know the quality of JDT ... they are the defending champions and are a very experienced side. But I believe that if everyone works hard, we can get a positive result from the match,” said David.