The much anticipated Eastern Derby between Tampines Rovers and Geylang United lived up to all the pre-match hype after the Stags beat the Eagles 3-2 thanks to an injury time strike by Santi Chaiyaphuak.
Geylang coach Lim Tong Hai saw his side come back from behind twice to level the match but a defensive lapse at the end meant the Eagles came away with nothing from the contest.
“We fought back from being a goal behind twice and while I am full of praise for my team for showing fighting spirit, they must know that the game requires full concentration until the end or else all hard battles will come to nought,” he said.
Both Lim and Geylang chairman Patrick Ang expressed their disappointment with referee T AravinthanÂ’s decision to turn down what they felt was a clear penalty in the 75th minute.
Said Ang: “Did you see that foul? It was clearly a penalty. The referee was not fair with us and was giving all the (favourable) decisions to them (Tampines)”.
The Stags had started the match strongly and took an early lead in the eighth minute. Noh Alam Shah was given plenty of time to head past Geylang goalkeeper Hassan Sunny with four Geylang defenders not doing much more than ball-watching in the area.
The Stags could have gone two-up in the 23rd minute but man-of-the-match Sutee Suksomkit somehow contrived to sky his effort over the crossbar after more good work by Alam Shah.
Two minutes later, Rafi AliÂ’s lob from just outside the area clipped the Geylang crossbar and bounced away to safety.
The resolute Tampines defence was robust in denying the GeylangÂ’s attack. But as the game progressed, the green tide began to find chinks in the wall of yellow.
Geylang drew level in the 38th minute. Fadzuhasny JuraimiÂ’s shot from inside the area was parried away by Tampines custodian Rezal Hassan but the loose ball fell sweetly for Syed Fadhil to coolly slot home the rebound.
The Stags pressed on to restore their lead and came closest in the 44th minute as Geylang captain Aide Iskandar slid Alam ShahÂ’s goal-bound header away.
Geylang gave Dutch-Moroccan striker Abdelaziz Dnibi came on for Jonathan Xu in the 59th minute for his S.League debut.
But it was TampinesÂ’s new signing Sutee who restored their lead off a curling free kick ten minutes later.
The Eagles fought back strongly and brought on former Sengkang Punggol striker Kim Grant in the 77th minute to add some beef upfront. And the goal that the Geylang fans were praying for came in the 86th minute when Hafiz Rahim tucked away KimÂ’s clever pass beyond Rezal.
With the spoils seemingly shared, SantiÂ’s late goal off an assist by substitute Aliff Shafaein killed Geylang off.
A poor defensive clearance on the part of the Geylang defence saw the ball land at the feet of Aliff inside the area. The midfielder – who came on for Noh Alam Shah – laid on an unselfish pass to Santi, who made no mistake from close range.
Said Tampines coach Vorawan Chitavanich: “I am happy we got our first win at Jalan Besar (Stadium) against a very good Geylang team.”
Although my boys fought strongly and deserved to win, Geylang’s young players were very impressive especially their fitness and attitude to fight.”