Tampines Rovers will be looking to step up their pursuit of S.League leaders Albirex Niigata (S) when they visit Warriors FC at Choa Chu Kang Stadium on Thursday night.
The Stags, one of the competition's traditional heavyweights, have won six their last seven matches to move to second on the table, seven points behind Albirex.
In some ways, it's been a troubled 2017, having changed coaches, and with chairman Krishna Ramachandra recently announcing his plans to step down.
However, Tampines have still managed to perform reasonably well. And playmaker Shahdan Sulaiman believes they will have no problems maintaining this focus against the capable Warriors.
"Being able to reduce the lead at the top is, of course, a motivation for us," the Singapore international told the S.League's official website.
"The morale in the team has always been good and it was nice to continue our winning momentum after the international break [with last week's 3-1 win over Balestier Khalsa].
"But, having said that, we are taking it a game at a time, and I believe we should focus on ourselves rather than the other teams in the league.
"While the team has performed decently so far, there will always be room for improvement.
"Hopefully, we can keep on improving as the season goes on and keep up our challenge for the title."
The Stags will be coming up against an experienced Warriors side who lie four points adrift of their opponents in fourth spot.
Warriors are the only side, apart from leaders Albirex, to have inflicted a league defeat on Tampines this term, following April's 1-0 result which came courtesy of Jordan Webb's first-half winner. Canadian-born Webb is a former Stags' favourite.
And Shahdan is under no illusions that he and his teammates will be in for another tricky evening at Choa Chu Kang.
"It's definitely going to be a tough game against a team with players who have a wealth of experience," the 29-year-old said.
"For example, they have players like Shahril Ishak, Baihakki Khaizan and Shaiful Esah just to name a few.
"That said, they will also be gunning for all three points to try and climb above us and we have to be on our toes throughout the game.
"Of course, the [previous] defeat will be on the back of our minds, but we want to put in a better performance as we didn't do well against them in the first round.
"Not only did we lose, it just wasn't a good outing for us that day."
Tampines coach Jurgen Raab will be boosted by the return of defender Shakir Hamzah from a two-match suspension, while utility Hafiz Abu Sujad could feature after rejoining the club following his departure from Thai outfit BBCU.