PETALING JAYA (By K. RAJAN) : Armed Forces coach B. Sathianathan has urged his players to not rely too much on St Vincent and the Grenadines striker Marlon Alex James.

The 36-year-old James leads the scorers’ chart with seven goals. Midfielder Mohd Shukor Adan is Forces’ second highest goalscorer with two.

The other Forcers strikers are R. Surendran, Yusaini Hafiz Chee Saad and Hairuddin Omar. But the three have yet to find the net.

“We are banking too much on James to score for us and it’s not fair to put so much pressure on him,” said Sathianathan.

“I want the local players to contribute as well. We are working hard towards that goal,’’ added the former national coach.

Forces have suffered a drop of form of late but Sathianathan said he was not too worried about it.

The Gladiators were beaten 2-3 by Terengganu and were held to a 0-0 draw by Pahang in their last two matches. Moneybags Johor Darul Takzim (JDT) lead the 12-team standings ahead of Forces after a 2-1 win over basement side Negri Sembilan on Saturday. JDT have 16 points, one ahead of Forces after nine matches.

“The league is quite well-balanced this time. The positions change all the time. I think we are going to have an exciting season with different teams occupying the top three positions every week,” said the 54-year-old Sathiana-than.

“My target is to finish the first half of the season in the top two. The problem is we are playing well against the stronger teams but dropping points against the so-called weaker teams.

“I have told the players that there is no such thing as a weak team in the league. We must not under-estimate our opponents,” he added.

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