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Saturday’s S.League action at Jalaln Besar Stadium saw a late deluge of goals as Tampines Rovers stormed to a 5-0 win over Balestier Khalsa.
After a resilient display from Balestier in the first half, they fell behind to an Aleksandar Duric goal on 68 minutes, but few could have predicted the flood that was to follow.
By the time the clock hit the full ninety, the scoreboard was coldly showing a scoreline of five goals to nothing.
The emphatic win might have flattered to deceive, but crucially for Tampines, it opened up a six-point lead at the top over nearest challengers Home United.
Balestier, though, probably deserved a better result, considering their good showing until Duric gave his side the lead with almost three quarters of the match gone.
They were displaying good teamwork and clinical passing for the duration of the first half, with many a shot, corner and free kick zooming in on target.
An eighth-minute K. Vikraman free kick was perfectly weighted into the box for teammate Vitor Borges, who latched on to it with his foot and took a shot after a quick turn in the six-yard box, only for the ball to be scrambled away by Stags custodian Hassan Sunny near the right post.
From the resulting corner, Vikraman received the ball and, from outside the box, hammered a wicked drive which was acrobatically palmed away by the ever-vigilant Hassan.
With better possession and a string of attacking forays coming their way, the Tigers were often foiled at the final hurdle by the scintillating guard of national goalkeeper Hassan between the sticks.
Tampines on the other hand were playing cautiously throughout the half, and possession was tilted towards to the Tigers’ advantage as the men in white kept going forward with impunity.
Midway through the half, Tampines did shine, however, when Ahmad Latiff Khamarudin, Ismadi Mukhtar and Duric linked up in an assault on goal. The trio charged into the Balestier box, Latiff threaded a pass to Duric, and the big man passed to the left for Ismadi to shimmy past his marker.
But having set himself up for a great chance, Ismadi fired a shot that beat Balestier goalkeeper Joey Sim, only to see the shot come back into play off the underside of the crossbar.
The early period of the second half saw the Tigers continue to dominate.
Borges played a delicate lob to Kim Young Kwang inside the box on 49 minutes, which resulted in a neat bicycle-kick effort from the big Korean that landed atop the netting.
Tampines replied three minutes later when an Ismadi screamer from the edge of the box was excellently saved by Sim, who had to fully stretch himself to execute a two-handed diving save.
An effort on 54 minutes from Borges, after a mazy run down the right, was struck just wide of the left post, and another three minutes on, the Brazilian fed Kim, who was dangerously near the Stags’ goal-line, but Hassan stuck a foot out to foil the Korean.
Tampines then made a switch on 61 minutes, bringing Shukor Zailan on for Aliff Shafaein, and that began to cause problems at the Tigers’ rear.
And the Stags made their breakthrough soon enough, when Shahdan Sulaiman found his way to the corner line inside the box and played a low cross to Duric, who needed only a light flick to make it 1-0.
On 72 minutes, it was 2-0.
Again Shahdan was involved, his free kick from the far right finding Benoit Croissant near the penalty arc, and the powerfully-thumped header rebounded off the floor and confounded Sim, who made an awkward flap at the ball.
The unlikely form of Croissant at the far end of play came close to scoring again on 80 minutes when the Frenchman’s exquisite curler from the left flank went past the Tigers’ right post by mere inches.
Four minutes later, though, Duric received a pass from the right and hammered a low shot past the flailing right arm of Sim and into the bottom right corner.
Not to be outdone by his captain, Croissant claimed a brace himself two minutes from regulation time.
Positioned near the right post when Sim made an initial save from a thunderous shot on the left by substitute Zahid Ahmad, the 30-year-old launched himself at the ball and managed to send it into the net.
With three minutes of additional time given, 24-year-old substitute Ahmed Fahmie sealed an emphatic fifth with a powerful close-range effort that flat-footed Sim.
The goalkeeper, who anticipated the ball to his right, ended up being badly fooled as the striker steadied himself to second-guess Sim’s movement and cheekily send the ball the other way.
It sealed a roaring scoreline that, in the view of Tampines coach Steven Tan, made his team look better than they were.
“It was a flattering scoreline as Balestier were having a good game until that first goal,” he said.
“As we know, they are not a team to concede many goals. But this win keeps our momentum going, and I am happy with that.
“I had a talk with the team at half-time, and I told them we were looking sluggish in the first half, not hungry enough.
“I asked them to up the tempo come the second half as we felt Balestier would tire, and the goals came after that. It’s a good win as it sets us up nicely for our Tuesday game in the AFC Cup match against Victory (from the Maldives) and then against Gombak United on Friday.”
A more solemn Nasaruddin Jalil, speaking on behalf of his Tigers head coach Salim Moin, also shared his thoughts.
“We conceded late, lost concentration and capitulated,” said the 46-year-old.
“We had a good game before that first goal. And when the second goal came minutes later, we just lost concentration and the collapse came about.
“It is something for all of us to learn. We have to reflect on this performance, pick ourselves up, share the collective blame and look to not concede in such a way in our next tie (against Home United).”
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