Panchkula (Haryana), March 11 (IANS) Having won the I-League title with a match to spare, RoundGlass Punjab will hope to end their successful campaign with another win at home when they take on Tiddim Road Athletic Union (TRAU) at the Tau Devi Lal Stadium here on Sunday.
Victory on Sunday will help RoundGlass Punjab FC finish unbeaten at home in the league in which they have 49 points from 21 matches. They have 15 wins, four draws and only two losses in the season.
TRAU have secured a top-four finish for only the second time in their Hero I-League history, but will have a chance to move up to third with a win should Gokulam Kerala lose to Sreenidi Deccan in the match to be played earlier in the day.
Sunday’s match will be a good chance for TRAU coach Leimapokpam Nandakumar Singh to test his strategy and the ability of his boys against a strong team like RoundGlass Punjab, ahead of the Hero Super Cup qualifiers next month.
Staikos Vergetis’s men would like to avenge the 2-0 defeat in Imphal when these two teams met earlier this season in December. If TRAU manage to stop them, they will have the rare honour of being a team the Hero I-League champions could not beat. But RoundGlass Punjab are in no mood to let one go.
“We would like to remain unbeaten at home,” Vergetis said in the pre-match press conference on Saturday. “However, some players are really tired and I’d want to give chances to some who have not played much.”
Nandakumar said, “I’m happy with our position on the table and I congratulate RoundGlass Punjab for their title victory. It’ll be good for us to play a team of that calibre.”
However, he said the win in the reverse fixture is unlikely to have a bearing on Sunday’s tie. “In Imphal, they missed some good players because of injuries, and they’ve also improved a lot since then. We’re also going to miss some players because of suspensions.”
–IANS
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