info@sleague.com
Last week, it was Tanjong Pajar United. This week, Woodlands Wellington had their turn.
Diego Gama de Oliveira and Jordan Webb grabbed a brace in each half as Hougang United registered another comfortable victory over one of S.League’s bottom teams, finishing on the right side of a 4-1 scoreline.
The Brazilian opened the scoring on 13 minutes when he capitalised on a defensive mix-up to lob the ball into the back of the net. And despite picking up a knock in the build-up to the goal, he doubled his and Hougang’s tally six minutes later when he beat Ang Bang Heng at the latter’s near post after some good work inside the box.
Oliveira needed to be taken off on 34 minutes, but his Canadian teammate Webb carried on from there in the second half, finishing off Mamadou Diallo’s perfect pass with a neat finish before concluding the scoring with a volley from inside the box.
Although Ali Imran Lomri managed to pick up a goal for Woodlands in-between Webb’s strikes, the end result was never really in doubt.
With three points in the bag, the Cheetahs are now level on points with sixth-placed Albirex Niigata (Singapore), although having played a game more.
This win was also their third in a row, and their fourth in five matches, in a run that has greatly lifted the northeastern club after they had earlier looked likely to be drawn into the bottom three.
The Rams meanwhile will have to wait for their next match against Albirex for another attempt at a first victory.
Things looked bad for Woodlands as early as the tenth minute when they lost Adrian Butters to injury. The Canadian collided with teammate Leonardo Alexio da Costa, and although the 22-year-old tried to run it off, that effort quickly proved to be futile.
Three minutes later, the Rams found themselves a goal down as well.
A high through-ball from Duncan David Elias did not look like threatening the defence, but a lack of communication allowed Oliveira to give his side the lead in surprising circumstances.
The injury-prone striker took a knock from Woodlands custodian Ang along the way and could not really celebrate his second goal of the season, but after some treatment, he was back on the field to score his second of the night.
He had his back towards goal inside the area at that point, but he easily turned his marker to unleash a left-footed shot that beat the Rams goalkeeper.
The knock eventually forced him off the field after 34 minutes, and he was replaced by Fazli Jaffar.
By that time, Woodlands managed their only chance of note in the first half when Navin Nigel Vanu beat the offside trap to deliver a good cross from the right, but the towering Leonardo da Costa failed to get his header on target with the goal at his mercy.
Diallo had the last chance of the half on 45 minutes as he powered his way into the box, but the Guinean opted for placement rather than power, which resulted in an easy save.
However, he was greatly influential in the third Hougang goal, which came 17 minutes after the interval.
A perfectly-threaded pass to Webb set the latter up for tidy finish, yielding the Canadian his sixth goal of the season.
The Cheetahs were playing with plenty of confidence, but then they gave away a needless corner on 73 minutes that resulted in the Rams finding the back of the net.
Hougang goalkeeper Ridzuan Fatah Hassan was unable to catch a cross from the left and palmed it instead to substitute Ali Imran, who made no mistake from inside the area.
Five minutes later, though, Hougang restored their three-goal advantage when substitute Sobrie Mazelan got the ball to Webb, who planted a powerful volley into the back of the net.
The Rams had the last opportunity of the match when Graham Tatters curled a free kick over the bar on 86 minutes, but both teams were unable to hit the target anymore as the match ended 4-1 to Hougang.
Cheetahs assistant coach Hasrin Jailani, speaking on behalf of Aide Iskandar, felt that despite the comfortable scoreline, there are things his team would still need to improve on.
“It was a good win, but there are a lot of things that we did not do too well, especially when we were leading by two goals,” said Hasrin, ironically a former Woodlands man.
“We gave away possession and they had a couple of chances. It is always dangerous to concede a lot of set pieces, especially when they’ve got height.
“Fortunately, we scored the third goal first to make it more comfortable. If they scored to make it 2-1, it might be a different game.
“Even in the second half we played well only in patches, but basically we’re happy with the win.
“Hopefully, there will be no complacency. We want to continue this run against the bigger teams now and take one game at a time. Against the bigger teams, to have at least a point would be good enough for us.”
He also identified their defensive game as a key problem area. Hougang have now conceded 21 goals from twelve matchs, and have the unwanted honour of conceding the most goals among all teams after Tanjong Pagar and Woodlands, beating Balestier Khalsa, Geylang United and the Courts Young Lions.
“That is our problem. We had a clean sheet for the past two games and we were supposed to keep a clean sheet today,” acknowledged Hasrin.
“We have to work on our defence. The attack so far is okay.
“Diego took the goals well today. He is the player we’ve been missing in attack – the player that scores the goals after we’ve played all the passes.
“It is frustrating for the coach not to have someone like that. Although we have players like Jordan, he is just not the same kind of player.”
Possible reasons why Woodlands lost could include the lack of training facilities and having a key player out within the first few minutes, something their coach R. Balasubramaniam was quick to point out.
“It was disappointing, we defended very badly today,” he told sleague.com.
“It is partly due to the lack of training for the last two days. It definitely played a part on the way we played, as we couldn’t string passes together and conceded the two early goals.
“With Butters out as well, we clearly didn’t have the luck today. The team was a bit shaken up after his injury and that’s why we conceded the goals.
“For now, getting the pitch for training is important for us before our game against Albirex on Tuesday.”
No comments:
Post a Comment