INDERA SC INTEND TO STAY AT THE TOP

A Indera SC player (L) clears the ball in a 
match against LLRC FT on Monday night. 
Picture: BT/Yusri Adanan
BY JASON THOMAS

INDERA Sports Club will be looking to maintain their good start to the DST Super League after heading into this week's fourth round of action at the top of the table.

Dethroning Liang Lumut Recreation Club Football Team (LLRC FT) from the summit after a 5-1 win on Monday, Indera understand that a win against Jerudong FC next Tuesday will see them enter the fifth round as top dogs.

A win for Jerudong, on the other hand, will mean that they will be the ones leading the way making the tie all the more interesting.

The surprise package of the season, LLRC who led the standings the first two weeks were given a reality check after Indera easily brushed them aside to announce their title bid, thanks in part to a hat-trick from national player Azwan Ali Rahman in the 5-1 win.

With the 10 teams only playing each other once, Indera will be buoyed with the knowledge that they are now one-third of the way to the title.

But though they have bagged a league-high 14 goals in three matches, they have conceded six and will know that leaky defenses do not win trophies.

And with the season still so young, the championship is still anyone's guess especially with LLRC and Royal Brunei Armed Forces Sports Council (MS ABDB) just one point adrift of Indera though the soldiers have a game in hand.

In fact, MS ABDB would probably be the bookie's favourite to lift the trophy this season considering they have only let in one goal in their previous two games while finding the net three times.

As many teams in the league will attest, reigning DST FA Cup champion MS ABDB are the masters at grinding out gritty wins because of their fitness and stamina.

MS ABDB take on LLRC in what is the most intriguing clash of week four, and a win against the Belait-based side on Monday will show the rest of the league that Indera and the rest of the chasing pack have their work cut out for them.

Indera will no doubt still remember how the army-men got one over them after a 115th minute goal by Mohammad Hardi Hj Matassan sealed the soldiers a 1-0 win in last month's DST FA Cup final, a memory that a DST Super League title will go a long way in erasing.

Like MS ABDB, QAF FC are perennial favourites in any tournament they enter.

However, QAF are in unfamiliar territory this campaign having only picked up one point out of a possible six.

They are currently eighth in the table and last Saturday's 4-1 defeat at the hands of the Royal Brunei Police Forces Sports Council (MS PDB) was probably the most shocking result of the season thus far.

News that Najip FC are at the bottom of the 10-team pile and are the only ones without a point to their name should hardly turn heads, but for a relatively new club, the fact that they are playing in the top-tier is already something to be proud of.

Najip have the chance to record their first points of the season when they face the policemen in the first match of the week four on Friday.

QAF will be searching for their first win when they face seventh-placed Wijaya on Saturday, and fifth-placed Majra FC might just move to the top of the table if they defeat Kilanas FC on Sunday.

With the season not even half-way through, it would be premature to start making any predictions.

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