By I-League Media
PUNE: The Balewadi Stadium will play host to a captivating encounter between DSK Shivajians and Salgaocar FC tomorrow.
Eighth-placed DSK Shivajians will play host to Salgaocar FC, who are one place below to the host outfit. Under Santosh Kashyap, the visiting Goan outfit looks like a formidable team and would make it difficult for the Shivajians to garner a second home victory of the season.
After winning the Maharashtra Derby a week ago, the DSK Shivajians came second best at Bengaluru where they had to go down by an unassailable margin of 1-4.
The Derrick Pereira coached side has major injury concerns before Sunday’s game. Subrata Pal will miss the tie due to personal concerns in his hometown. Midfielders Zakir Mundampara and Milan Singh are still unavailable for the game and coach will miss the services of Ralte at the heart of the defence.
DSK Shivajians have managed to find the back of the net only twice in six matches. Douhou Pierre, who grabbed the winner in the derby against Mumbai FC the other day, will surely look for more balls in the final third to find the net. Meanwhile, Mohammed Rafi is back in contention after he missed the game against Bengaluru FC on Wednesday.
“It’s a very important game as both teams are going through a bad phase. Few young players like Haku and Sajid are coming up the ranks and would prove to be vital options for us”, said the DSK coach Derrick Pereira.
Looking forward to the bottom of the table clash, Pereira also praised the opposition by saying that they were unlucky in a couple of games and it would be difficult for his side to come back with maximum points against Santosh Kashyap’s boys.
Tides have turned for the visitors under their new manager with solid performances in their last couple of games. After losing their first four matches, the Salgaocar management decided to rope in a new manager in the like of Santosh Kashyap.
The former Air India coach garnered two points so far in as many matches. Still with a rise in form, this team is still rooted to the bottom of the table and will be firing all cylinders in Pune to finally find the elusive win in their Hero I-League campaign.
“It is an excellent environment in Pune. The setup made by DSK is very good. Hopefully, it should be an entertaining match”, Kashyap spoke ahead of the media before the pulsating Hero I-League tie.
The visitors too, have their fair share of injuries in this one. Jackichand Singh and Satiyasen Singh, who have been the vital cogs in the Salgaocar attack, will miss Sunday’s game due to groin and toe injuries respectively.
Under a newer philosophy, the Goan side would hope to bag three invaluable points in their tally.
