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Two points definitely went missing at Jalan Besar Stadium in Friday night’s Great Eastern-YEO’S S.League match, and Tampines Rovers were probably the ones looking for them more than Home United were.
As it was, the Protectors had left it late to salvage a point, but salvage it they did from a game Steven Tan’s Stags had controlled for long periods.
Tan admitted as much after the game, ruefully recounting the litany of missed chances that meant his side’s early lead – and equally early dominance – came to nought.
Home coach Lee Lim Saeng, by contrast, almost sheepishly confessed to some relief at snatching the draw, maintaining his team’s lengthy unbeaten run and denying Tampines the chance to bridge the gap between the two close rivals.
With neither side a winner this time it means that the other two main contenders this year, Etoile FC and SAFFC, stay in touch.
Home have to travel to Choa Chu Kang on Thursday to try and get their necks clean in front again by beating the Warriors, while Tampines return to Jalan Besar in exactly a week’s time with Etoile their next formidable opponents.
When the game began Tampines looked the sharper and more composed of the two teams, their passing game as good as it has ever been.
They showed good early initiative with a 45-yard screamer from Ahmad Latiff Khamarudin that had Lionel Lewis stretching fully to tip the ball over the bar.
Then, in the seventh minute, Benoit Croissant played a long through ball to Latiff on the left, who had time to square to Aleksandar Duric across on the right, twelve yards out.
With his left foot the all-time top scorer in league history added to his already impressive tally with a shot that had Lewis going the wrong way as it curled delightfully into the bottom right corner of the net.
Not to be outdone, Home responded on 24 minutes when Lewis played a long ball of his own, finding Sufian Anuar, whose cross from the left was volleyed beautifully by Qiu Li and then saved spectacularly by Hassan Sunny.
Lewis was at his best again just before the half-hour mark to deny Shahdan Sulaiman when he got on the end of a good move involving Duric, Aliff Shafaein and Akihiro Nakamura.
A glancing header from Frederic Mendy from a Firdaus Idros cross on 36 minutes went just wide at the far post, at a time when little was going right for the Protectors.
A stray pass across the heart of the Home defence eight minutes before half-time landed at the feet of the prowling Duric, but an alert Valery Hiek came across to cover and whipped the ball from the feet of the tall Tampines striker just in time to save the day.
Having controlled most of the possession in the first half, the Stags continued in much the same vein after the interval, during which Protectors coach Lee had brought on Firdaus Kasman for Rosman Sulaiman.
When Firdaus Idros dwelt on a ball out on the right flank with just over an hour gone, Shahdan was sharp enough to capitalise, and the latter then aimed a curling shot towards the far corner of the goal, only to see the ball shave the far post and go out for a harmless goal kick.
Another long ball from deep six minutes later saw Duric throwing a dummy that allowed Aliff to run through, only for the man they call ‘The Little Master’ to clip the rising ball just over the bar.
With chances like these going begging it was clear Tampines were asking for trouble, and the relatively quiet Mendy nearly made the visitors pay with 16 minutes to go when he found some space on the left and raced into the six-yard box, only to find the side-netting.
That was a good sign for Home, though, as Hassan had been untroubled to collect most of the crosses sent his way up to that point, and Mendy’s threat should have set alarm bells ringing.
And with nine minutes remaining on the clock, a free kick hotly disputed by Stags captain Duric led to the all-important equaliser.
Despite the big man’s protests, Shi Jiayi hit the ball high from deep on the right and into the six-yard box towards the far post.
Hassan came to collect, as he had successfully done several times in the preceding minutes, but this time he was beaten to the ball by the sheer strength of Mendy, who powered the ball home with a header before the hands of the national keeper could make contact with the ball.
Substitute Asraf Abdul Rashid nearly grabbed a shock winner on 84 minutes as he ran through unchecked to get his head to a deep cross from Firdaus Kasman, and it took a super save from Hassan to deny him.
Two more chances then fell the way of the Protectors, who finished the game off strongly.
On 87 minutes Mendy found Qiu Li out on the left, and when the powerful shot came in, Hassan had to be at his best to make the save.
In the final minute of regulation time, one more chance arrived for Tampines to reclaim the three points.
A cutback from Aliff for Duric resulted in a skied attempt from six yards, and that was the end of the challenge for supremacy on the night.
It might have kept Home ahead on the table, but for Lee, there was not so much to be happy about.
“We didn’t play well,” said the Protectors coach.
“We conceded early when the defence did not keep to their positions.
“The second half we were a lot better and we didn’t lose the game,” he wryly observed.
“If we had lost our unbeaten run the morale of the players would have definitely gone down.
“The players did follow my instructions in the second half at least, and I was not unhappy with the result. The first half was poor, but the second half we did well.”
Stags coach Tan had less to say, but did note, correctly, that his side had controlled the play for most of the match.
“They (Home United) were mainly pumping balls up to Mendy,” remarked the 40-year-old.
Of course it was one of those balls ‘pumped up to Mendy’ that provided the equaliser.
“It’s still early in the season,” Tan said when asked how much of a setback this result would be.
“We’ll have to see how it goes, as it’s a long season.”
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