Indra hits milestone in five-goal rout

Noor Farhan
info@sleague.com

Indra Sahdan Daud became only the fourth player in S.League history to score 200 domestic goals as his brace helped SAFFC to a 5-0 victory over Woodlands Wellington at Choa Chu Kang Stadium on Tuesday evening.

Woodlands had shown some good play in the first half and held out for 0-0 at the half-time break, but all that came undone as SAFFC hit their stride in the second period, with Mislav Karoglan also hitting two and Ivan Jerkovic getting himself on the scoresheet as well.

The highlight of the game was undoubtedly Indra’s milestone achievement, and he probably could not care less about picking up a yellow card for his exuberant shirts-off celebrations.

The Warriors had plenty to celebrate too, as they catapulted to the top of the table with nine points after four games, while Woodlands sank to bottom place, going behind Tanjong Pagar United on goal difference.

The first half was a staid affair, as both teams refused to take risks in the opening minutes of the game.

It was SAFFC who earned the first corner of the game after two minutes, but Taisuke Akiyoshi’s in-swinger eluded everybody and went out for a goal kick.

Karoglan had the game’s first shot on goal inside six minutes, but he only managed to sky the ball after some good play by the Warriors.

Akiyoshi had a chance to score from long range himself on 19 minutes, but he only managed to sting the gloves of Rams custodian Amos Boon, who got to parry it out for a corner.

Woodlands were not just sitting back, having started with Goh Swee Swee lining up alongside the lanky Leonardo Alexio da Costa, but for all the industry shown by Ali Imran Lomri, who had crosses coming in through the left, the visitors had no goals to show for their work.

In a bizarre moment on 23 minutes, Warriors winger Mustaqim Manzur contrived to overrun the ball on the left despite having some space to work a counterattack, and he ended up injuring himself as a result.

The former Singapore international was replaced soon after by Erwan Gunawan, as SAFFC sought to bring the game to the visitors with three men running the attacking line.

The Warriors rued another missed opportunity towards the end of the first half as Jerkovic was surprised to be in a shooting position in the penalty box. The Croatian’s effort was however repelled by Boon, and Indra’s follow-up bore no fruit as he deflected his effort wide amidst a sea of legs.

Akiyoshi had the last shot of the first half as he fizzed a long-range drive outside the penalty box, only to see it saved by the alert Boon.

All those wasted chances, however, were quickly forgotten early in the second half, as Karoglan netted twice in the space of two minutes to put the Warriors in command.

First, on 54 minutes, the former MSK Zilina man capitalised on a failed routine clearance by the visitors to score a poacher’s goal.

Karoglan again breached the Woodlands defence a minute later after some good interplay with strike partner Indra, as he was somehow allowed too much time to pick his spot and stroke a sweet left-footed curler into the top left-hand corner.

Rams coach R. Balasubramaniam responded by throwing on midfielder Navin Nigel Vanu for defender Madhu Mohana, but it was an all-Warriors affair by then as they dominated proceedings.

Indra ended his long wait for Goal No.200 on 64 minutes, after latching on to Karoglan’s excellent through ball down the middle to ripple the back of the Woodlands net.

Jerkovic had a part to play in that goal too, having intercepted Ali Imran to win the ball in the first place, and he put himself on the scoresheet five minutes later with a low shot that went in off the left hand post after some horrendous ball-watching by the visitors’ defence.

Indra then put the final nail in the coffin for Woodlands with 13 minutes to go, again capitalising on some shoddy defending to add to his personal tally.

By then it was clear the Rams had lost the will to fight on, and it did not matter that substitute Matthew Abraham could have produced the biggest win of the season so far had his cross-shot gone in on 84 minutes.

SAFFC coach Richard Bok was delighted with his team’s response following two unconvincing performances towards the end of February.

“I thought we played according to plan, we stifled their key personnel, we improved in the final third and created many chances, and to keep a clean sheet is always good,” he said in summary.

“A priority this season for us is to keep as many clean sheets as possible. This is our fourth (game) so hopefully, there are more clean sheets to come.

“I think the forwards played very well today, the combined well and understood each other, even Kari, who only joined us this year. We will be playing away against Balestier (Khalsa) next, and we are going to work hard, play our football and hopefully take our chances and we’ll see how it will go that night.

“As for Indra, scoring 200 goals in a local league for a local player is remarkable. It might have been a sort of pressure for him (to reach that milestone) which he maybe did not show, but once the goals came in he could relax a little and play his game in the end.”

Striker Karoglan added that it was a relief for the team to rack up the goals after they had drawn blanks in the first half.

“The key was the first goal, as after that they went down, as you can see,” said the Croat.

“The first half was very tough, very slow for us. We’re still not at the level that we want, but we’re still working hard and everything will show on the pitch soon, hopefully.”

Woodlands coach R. Balasubramaniam was stoic in defeat, citing fatigue as a factor for the second-half collapse.

“This is not the scoreline we expected, but the pitch got quite heavy towards the second half. The players would have to show character to get back and start winning again,” he told sleague.com.

“In the first half we played well, but in the second half, our tiredness showed. We had only two days to rest after the Tanjong Pagar (United) game, which was a difficult one at Jalan Besar Stadium.

“I also gave special instructions on whom to mark, but unfortunately that was not carried out, and that was why we leaked the goals,” he added.

“Nevertheless we will have to go back to the drawing board and correct our mistakes. Hopefully by then we could bounce back against Tampines (Rovers on 21 March).”