PUNE, Nov 23: United Sikkim Football Club and talismanic Bhaichung Bhutia might find more fans than the home team Pune FC when the two sides meet in the Round VII match of the I-League football championship at the Balewadi Sports Complex stadium on Saturday.

More fans do not necessarily mean that player-coach Bhutia can swing the match in his way as well-rested Pune FC is looking to get back into their groove after their match against Air India was postponed last week.

This will be first meeting between Pune FC and United Sikkim FC in the I-League championship, but whichever way the home side will be favourite to win the encounter that will help them move up the standings and still have a match in hand.

At the beginning of the season Pune and Sikkim outfits met in the Federation Cup tournament wherein Pune won by a solitary goal. Bhutia’s presence hasn’t done much to lift the team’s performance—whether the former India captain is playing or guiding the team from the sidelines.

Back-to-back reverses at home and away had shaken Pune FC, but a morale boosting win against Pailan Arrows had put them on track and that is from where Derrick Pereira would like to start against United Sikkim, which faced the ignominy of losing 1-10 against Prayag United SC in Round V.

The Sikkim outfit then travelled to Goa where Sporting Clube de Goa beat them 2-1—the result putting the North-Easterners at No 13 position, just one place above the bottom-ranked Air India. Sandesh Jhingan was the saviour for Sikkim after Sporting Clube had gone 2-0 up in the first 15 minutes of the match.

Bhutia had begun from bench for his first match as interim coach, with Anwar Ali at the heart of the defense, while Michael Rodriguez drove the midfield and provided support for strikers Nurudden Salau and Nadong Bhutia.

Bhutia then took the field, but failed to provide any spark in an otherwise dull affair, something that United Sikkim will have to guard against.

Pune FC on the other hand is hoping to beat Sikkim both on ground and from the stands. With the match being telecast live, the hosts have done enough campaign to attract fans to the stadium for the 5.30 pm start, an hour earlier than usual start for the home team matches.
“I feel so far we’ve done well to reduce mistakes. And have done so considerably as the league has progressed,” said Pereira.

“Playing in our conditions and under floodlights is an advantage. But overall every match is important.”

Pune FC has the luxury of picking the team from entire set of players with every player in good shape and without injury except for midfielder Shanmugam Venkatesh—posing a challenge for the coach. Venkatesh is yet to recover from a hamstring injury, but Pereira has lots of choice to pick from.

Though Jeje Lalpekhlua is yet to blossom as the coach would have liked to, but Subhash Singh has nicely filled in the void with his brisk work upfront. James Moga too is back in good health and skipper Douhou Pierre would expect the Sudanese forward to make his place count.