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Woodlands Wellington coach R. Balasubramaniam has to go back to the drawing board again after seeing his charges go down 1-2 to Etoile FC, despite Navin Nigel Vanu’s goal breaking a team drought that had stretched back to October 2010.
The result, following late strikes from Maxime Belouet and Selim Kaabi, sees Woodlands rooted to the bottom of the table.
The French visitors had the lion’s share of possession in the early minutes, forcing the Rams to be on the defensive.
Woodlands were very lucky to not have left midfielder Graham Tatters booked within five minutes of the game, as his late challenge on Etoile rightback Anthony Aymard drew a loud thud that resonated around Woodlands Stadium.
Despite that early sound of intent, the Rams continued to see very little of the ball, with their opponents free to flourish in midfield with some intricate passing.
A corner on 13 minutes by Belouet found the ever-threatening Hicham Bouchemlal, who saw his low shot penetrate a sea of Woodlands defenders into the safe hands of goalkeeper Ang Bang Heng, who was standing in for the injured Amos Boon.
Woodlands, meanwhile, were relying on the counterattack, with their forward passes directed at their lanky target man Leonardo Alexio da Costa.
One of his headed flick-ons nearly found the quicksilver Vanu, but the latter’s first touch let him down on the quarter-hour mark despite being sent clean through.
The Etoile centrebacks were having difficulties dealing with the Rams’ big man-small man combination, which would cost them dearly later on in the game.
One of the Rams’ corner deliveries on the left by Shahri Musa even had to be headed off the line by Aymard, after the forward pair of Vanu and da Costa caused confusion in the penalty area with their good off-the-ball running.
On a counterattack on 29 minutes, leftback Sirina Camara saw himself free in the penalty area, but then saw his powerful effort excellently saved by Ang.
Sazali Salleh was unfortunate to have been cautioned minutes before half-time for obstruction on the threatening Aymard, even as Woodlands showed their tenacity and were not afraid to take the game to the visitors.
The Rams, however, were slower off the blocks at the start of the second half, with Etoile again running rings around their defence.
The hosts continued to soak the pressure and look to strike on the counter, with Vanu again threatening to score on 54 minutes after a high ball sent him past Etoile’s defence.
Near the hour mark, however, Rams defender Munier Raychouni almost let his team down with a misjudged clearance off a high pass by Etoile, but he was lucky to see Kevin Lefranc’s shot graze Ang’s left-hand post.
Woodlands soon made their luck count as they finally scored with 62 minutes gone.
Chasing down what seemed like a lost cause, Rams forward da Costa managed to close down the space from a backpass by an Etoile defender to goalkeeper Antonin Trilles.
Intercepting his fluffed clearance, he then laid the ball to livewire Vanu, who seared past the malingering Etoile defenders to pounce for the Rams’ first goal, sending the Woodlands fans into rapture.
Etoile soon made several tactical substitutions to salvage the situation, with Serge Souchon making way for Julien Durand, and Camara making way for forward Anthony Moulin.
With one last roll of the dice, Stars coach Guglielmo Arena threw on Stan Fougeroud in place of Lefranc to augment his attack ten minutes from the end.
Woodlands responded with a positive substitution, replacing Shahri with Goh Swee Swee in search of another goal to kill the game off.
However, fate had other ideas, as the home side conceded an unfortunate goal with four minutes remaining on the stadium clock.
Collecting a routine long pass in the penalty area, Rams custodian Ang seemed to have things under control.
However, he was collided into by one of the Etoile forwards, causing him to spill the ball for an easy goal credited to Belouet despite Moulin’s obvious involvement.
Despite the vehement protests from Woodlands, who were crying foul over what they saw as an illegal challenge on Ang, referee Leow Thiam Hoe allowed the Frenchmen’s goal to stand.
And it got worse for Balasubramaniam’s side deep in injury time.
An outswinging corner by Belouet was haphazardly cleared by the Woodlands defence, sending Jonathan Toto on a rampaging run through the rearguard.
Up popped Kaabi, who received the return pass from Toto to rocket a shot past Ang that clinched an unlikely three points with practically the last kick of the game.
It was a result the Rams coach took very badly afterwards as he spoke to the media.
“We did everything we could, what was supposed to be done was done, but unfortunately we couldn’t (win the game),” said a livid Balasubramaniam, who then aired his grievance on Belouet’s equaliser.
“Everybody saw it, everyone knew it was an infringement on (Ang) for their first goal, but what can I say?”
As disappointed as the 37-year-old was, he seemed to prefer to keep his counsel after that comment, declining to go further.
“Now I would have to find a way to motivate my boys for the next game, and we’ll see how it goes from there,” he added.
Etoile coach Arena also was disappointed by his charges’ lethargic performace midway into the second half.
“This was possibly one of the worst performances by Etoile this season, despite the win,” said the Italian through an interpreter.
“They played well, and we had some difficulty dealing with Leonardo’s height but I would say we did alright. Still, it was not a good performance.”
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