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EARLY leaders UniKL will start their battle against four sports schools in Division One of the MHF-Milo-NSC Junior Hockey League from today.
The newcomers, who have played four matches and collected a maximum 12 points, will start with Bukit Jalil Sports School Juniors this weekend, and then Bukit Jalil Sports School next weekend, Bandar Penawar Sports School-Thunderbolt after that and end their schools battle against Bandar Penawar Sports School Juniors.
However, the standings are not expected to change after this weekend as the three early contenders have relatively easy matches.
UniKL should have an easy time against BJSS Juniors, while joint-second Thunderbolt and BJSS also have easy matches against Anderson and Petaling Jaya City Council respectively.
BPSS-Thunderbolt coach Wan Roslan Wan Rahman said yesterday that even though Anderson lost their last two matches, they will not be easy.
"Anderson are still a dangerous team and we will not take any chances against them. For us the three points are very important to stay in the title race.
"So we will have to play hard and ensure we convert the chances that come our way," he said.
The Bandar Penawar team have an impressive scoring rate with 17 goals in three matches. They are second only to UniKL who have scored 22 goals in four matches.
BJSS coach S. Prakash lamented his team's poor scoring rate. "We are missing too many chances and our play has not been that good either. Against Anderson we made it difficult for ourselves," he said.
"We need to improve fast and score more goals against weaker opponents, as we have only scored seven so far." Anderson face another tough weekend as they chase to remain in the top five. Besides BPSS-Thunderbolt they will also travel to Kuala Terengganu to play Kelantan.
The top five teams from Division One and top three from Division Two qualify for the knockout stage.
TODAY -- Division One: Bukit Jalil Sports School v Petaling Jaya City Council (Tun Razak, 7pm), BPSS-Thunderbolt v Anderson (Bandar Penawar, 5pm), Kelantan v Bukit Jalil Sports School (Terengganu, 5pm).
Division Two: Tunku Besar Secondary School v Pahang (Tampin, 5pm), Kuala Selangor v Johor (Pandamaran, 5pm), Matri v Datuk Taha (Alor Star, 5pm).
SUNDAY -- Division One: Petaling Jaya City Council v Bandar Penawar Juniors (Tun Razak, 8pm), Kelantan v Anderson (Terengganu, 5pm), UniKL v Bukit Jalil Sports School Juniors (KLHA Stadium, 5pm).
Division Two: Matri v Sabah (Alor Star, 5pm), Kuala Selangor v Ipoh City Council (Pandamaran, 5pm), Johor v Pahang (Johor Baru, 5pm).
