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Following a 0-2 defeat to title contenders Home United on Sunday evening, Woodlands Wellington are now without a league goal for 466 minutes since the start of the S.League season.
Despite bearing that dubious distinction, however, Rams coach R. Balasubramaniam was determined to focus on the positives in a match where his side largely managed to restrict their hosts at Bishan Stadium.
“Even it is a defeat, we should look on the positive side, and tonight we made them work for their two goals,” he said at the post-match press conference.
“Those were not given to them on a platter, they had to work for it unlike against some other teams. I told my players that if we were to go down, we have to make the opponents work, and we did that here.”
It was not a game without its scares for the visitors, though, and Korean forward Kim Dae Eui, making a surprise start after missing recent games due to injury issues, almost netted his second goal of the season after just two minutes.
Eluding the attention of his marker Munier Raychouni on the edge of the penalty area, the 36-year-old placed his shot well, only to see the ball bounce away off the upright, much to the relief of a stranded Amos Boon.
Eight minutes later, the Rams gave themselves a chance to break their season-long duck with former Protectors protege Goh Swee Swee knitting the threadwork up front.
Moving along the right flank, he spotted and laid the ball neatly to his skipper Sazali Salleh, who was making inroads from the middle of the park.
But the lack of striker’s instinct deterred the seasoned midfielder from taking the first opportunity, and a square ball to the left ended up giving the Home backline time to regroup and snuff out the danger.
Injury concerns then prompted both sides to withdraw one key man each, Kim coming off first after just 19 minutes with a recurrence of the hamstring pull that had kept him out recently in the first place.
The enforced departure disappointed Protectors coach Lee Lim Saeng, who had felt confident about Kim’s participation.
“Because of the hamstring injury, he had not started for the last two games for us,” he explained.
“But he looked good when I checked with him in training, and that’s why I decided to start him today. At this stage, we can’t assess the seriousness of his injury until we check with the doctor.”
The former Suwon Samsung Bluewings star was replaced by the nippy Asraf Abdul Rashid, who immediately made an impact against his former employers.
A corner kick from the midfielder was latched on to by the towering Frederic Mendy, whose header was forced off the line by Sahairi Ramri.
Woodlands then lost custodian Boon on 28 minutes with a badly twisted ankle, but the one-time Protectors custodian had already conceded a goal by that point, when he could do nothing to stop a well-taken free kick by Qiu Li from the edge of the box on 24 minutes.
Boon’s replacement Ang Bang Heng almost failed to last ten minutes on the pitch after a tangle with his own defender, but Balasubramaniam was able to breathe a sigh of relief once the goalkeeper, who had last turned out for Balestier Khalsa three years ago, was cleared to continue.
Qiu was guilty of squandering a sitter at the stroke of half-time when he failed to put the ball away from close range, and once again Sahairi stood out with a crucial clearance.
Yet the noticeable thing as the game wore on was that Woodlands looked perfectly capable of ruffling a few feathers among the Protectors, only for the telling touch to elude them in the final third.
“That was something we were working on the whole of last week,” confirmed the Rams coach when asked on their attacking performance. “I think we still have a lot more to learn.”
Balasubramaniam was however pleased with the continued progress shown by Leonardo Alexio da Costa, who had two great chances to score and managed to string a few useful passes to his teammates as well.
One notable moment from the Brazilian came on 76 minutes, when he capitalised on a rare error by Home centreback Valery Hiek to turn his way into the box, although the final shot did little to stretch Lionel Lewis.
He also put his height to good use three minutes later when he connected with an Ali Imran Lomri free kick inside the six-yard box, but could only send his header agonisingly wide.
“I think it’s unfair to pin the blame on him for the team’s inability to score,” stressed Balasubramaniam as he defended his main striker.
“As I mentioned before, he only joined us in mid-January, and for a time we weren’t sure if he was coming at all. He will need some time to get used to things, but from tonight’s performance I can see that he’s improving.”
It is the finer details, however, that separate scoring and missing, something Mendy underlined when he scored with a simple tap-in to double Home’s advantage on 57 minutes.
The Frenchman was perfectly placed to score with a simple stretch of his long legs after Ang could only parry a powerful thunderbolt from the right by Juma’at Jantan.
Home stopped scoring after that, though not for want of trying, and that left Lee unconcerned by the relatively meagre return of goals on this occasion.
“I’m confident that my strikers will score more goals in our upcoming matches, as I believe in them for doing so,” confided the Korean.
“If this team cannot create chances, we are finished. But we created chances, and if we keep creating chances, we can score goals and this club will have a good future.”
He was however concerned about a number of hard tackles that had taken place in the match.
“I think more protection for the players should be given by the referee,” he urged.
“Tackles like those we had seen tonight could have caused serious injuries to the players. All the players have a responsibility to protect one another, we don’t want to see any player hurt by a serious injury because he was tackled.”
Balasubramaniam however offered a different perspective.
“Tackles are part and parcel of the game, and it’s something that go across the board,” said the 37-year-old.
“In defending, we have got to do something, we can’t just allow the strikers to get away easily. Are we supposed to just sit there and watch Mendy do his thing?
“This is men’s football we are playing, it is a game we should play like men. My players were just doing what they need to do.”
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