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There might not have been any goals, but fans of Tanjong Pagar United could still be pleased by their team’s performance against the Courts Young Lions at Clementi Stadium on Thursday evening.
On their home debut since temporarily relocating from Queenstown, the Jaguars did more than just defend – they also made sure the opposition backline had to work to keep their clean sheet.
Woodlands Wellington’s last-gasp 1-2 defeat in a simultaneous fixture meant that Tanjong Pagar had enough points to move off the bottom of the table, a fact that was certainly pleasing in itself to the club.
But the joy derived from that was secondary compared to the satisfaction Terry Pathmanathan must have felt with his charges’ progress as they defied any elitist assumptions the spectators might have had regarding their standing relative to their more privileged opponents on the day.
Pathmanathan brought first-choice goalkeeper Ridhuan Barudin back into the starting eleven, while deadline-day signing Azlan Alipah was summoned into action straight away, holding the link between defence and midfield.
The visitors meanwhile welcomed skipper Hariss Harun back into action, and Faris Ramli was one of four players from the latest batch of National Football Academy graduates to make the Young Lions lineup.
With Faris, Afiq Yunos and other top-of-the-line talents from their respective cohorts filling out the team, the boys in white and blue were expected to assert themselves on the field against their supposedly lower-tier peers.
But it was Tanjong Pagar who made the first meaningful push into enemy territory, Patrick Paran going on the attack down the left flank inside the opening minute after his team had won possession from the Young Lions.
At the other end, Ridhuan felt little pressure for much of the first half as the defence held up easily against the visitors, who seemed uncomfortable with the bumpy and hard Clementi field.
Even at dead-ball situations there seemed little for the home fans to worry about, as Shahfiq Ghani’s deliveries lacked the venom to strike fear into the Jaguars.
The match was unfolding in rather even fashion, and Hyun Jong Woon held the ball well heading into the penalty area on 20 minutes, forcing Faris to backtrack and dispossess him.
Takaya Kawanabe had two chances in the minutes that followed as well, one from a team move in open play and the other from a free kick earned by Paran as the team swarmed forward more and more often.
To his credit, Izwan Mahbud remained largely calm manning the sticks for the visitors, although he would not have been too pleased by the mistakes his defenders were making in front of him.
One instance came on the half-hour mark, when Faritz Abdul Hameed misjudged a long pass by Kim Seong Kyu and allowed Hyun a chance to collect and tee Kawanabe up for a shot that Izwan read well and gathered perfectly.
Soon enough, though, the Young Lions found it in themselves to go on the attack, and Shahfiq’s blast from a free kick forced former NFA teammate Delwinder Singh into a solid block.
Faritz did better with a cross just before half-time, to which Fazli Ayob managed to connect, but again Ridhuan was barely tested by the effort.
Feeling encouraged by that last attack, though, Robin Chitrakar urged his young team to keep up the pressure in the second half, and it was a call that drew a spirited response.
As the Young Lions steadily encamped themselves in Tanjong Pagar’s half of the field, it seemed that the home side would finally feel the pressure from their opponents.
But the players in red and black responded by falling back and redoubling their determination to earn themselves a second clean sheet, with even the attack-minded Kawanabe popping up in his own penalty box to deal with Safirul Sulaiman’s cross from the left on 51 minutes.
Sensing a need for fresh legs, Chitrakar sent enforcer Izzdin Shafiq, creative forward Syafiq Zainal and former Gombak United trainee Haniff Ja’ffar Sadique on with about 20 minutes left, pulling off Safirul, Shahfiq and the ineffective Nazrul Ahmad Nazari.
The Jaguars stood their ground, though, and Kim Jong Oh seemed not to care that he was on a yellow card already as he often put himself between the ball and danger.
Half-time substitute Abdul Rahman Haneefa then nearly managed to twist past the Young Lions defence on 72 minutes, only to fire his shot way above the bar from 20 yards out.
An accidental elbow by Ridhuan on his skipper’s head late on forced the Korean to go off the field for treatment, and being temporarily reduced to ten men threatened to unsettle the hosts.
But they rallied with all hands on deck at the rear as medical staff patched up the wound as quickly as they could, and after a couple of late scares, the final whistle sounded to ensure they earned their point.
Pathmanathan: We could have had more
Tanjong Pagar United coach Terry Pathmanathan was pleased with the progress his charges had shown in earning their second point of the season – although he felt they need to do better going forward.
Having seen his side force the Courts Young Lions into a number of errors throughout the match, the 55-year-old admitted he was ‘disappointed’ not to get a goal out of the game.
“To me, we had some very good chances when our strikers went through a couple of times,” he said.
“I was a bit disappointed we could not capitalise on the mistakes made by the Young Lions. That is a big worry to me; if we do mistakes we get punished, but we have to do the same thing to the opponents.
“It is not one or two mistakes we saw, we are talking about numerous errors from the Young Lions that we did not know how to capitalise. But then I thought the team proved their fitness, because when I was Young Lions coach, everyone hated playing the team because of our fitness.
“As far as I’m concerned, it has been a tough game for me and this team. I thought they proved themselves well, you can see that they are starting to play, and seeing where they came from, they are moving up quite well.”
Pathmanathan did single out one player who, in his view, needed to raise his game.
“Hyun (Jong Woon) has been a little off the mark, he has not lived up to expectations,” he noted.
“The other Koreans are contributing a lot to the team, but Hyun has to start pushing his game up. But I thought other players like Patrick (Paran) have shown tremendous improvement, and if they keep working, they will get even better.”
Young Lions coach Robin Chitrakar was bullish in his post-match assessment, hailing his defence for keeping a clean sheet as he glossed over the dejection of not collecting full points.
“First things first, after a five-goal defeat, it’s good to keep a clean sheet here,” he told sleague.com.
“Tanjong Pagar are not an easy opponent, as you can see. They play with a compact defence, but we still managed to penetrate and send in a couple of crosses, we had a few corners and free kicks, and especially in the second half, I think the other team didn’t have clear chances.
“We took a while to settle down in the first half due to the bumpy pitch, but the second half, we came out and played much better. We created numerous chances and even missed a sitter towards the end.
“It’s a good sign, because we can build from here. Now we finally have a few days’ break before we start work again, and definitely we want to get a goal and the three points in our next game.”
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