| |
|
|
Rams ride luck to defeat wasteful Bulls
Paul Green
info@sleague.com
Woodlands Wellington clambered off the bottom of the ladder with a surprise 2-1 win over fourth-placed Gombak United in Friday night’s televised Great Eastern-YEO’S S.League match at Jalan Besar Stadium.
It was a result thoroughly welcomed by the Rams, who had begun the game poorly, even by the admission of their coach A. Shasi Kumar.
They had to come from a goal down to beat the Bulls, who created more than enough chances to collect the points but in the end could not finish off more than one of them.
“Did we deserve to win?” asked Shasi, thinking aloud in the post-match press conference.
“I’ll be the first to admit we were a little lucky, but we defended really well tonight and that made all the difference.”
The luck the Woodlands coach was referring to was the manner in which his own team scored their two goals, after Gombak had taken a twelfth-minute lead through Fazli Jaffar.
Indeed, all the goals came in the first half-hour or so, and while captain Mohd Noor Ali and ace marksman Abdelhadi Laakkad had strong games and remained potent threats throughout, it was the defensive work from the Rams that paid the real dividends.
Having said that, however, spurned chances by Gombak certainly let Shasi’s men off the hook in the closing stages.
“That was a really good save by our keeper, Fajar Sarib, to keep us ahead, though their keeper also made some good saves as well,” commented the former Bulls coach.
The save he was referring to was one that denied Korean forward Chang Jo Yoon late in the game.
As for opposing goalkeeper Zaiful Nizam, Shasi was even-handed in his praise as well, after what had been a hardworking night for the 22-year-old.
Saves aplenty he may have made and Gombak coach Darren Stewart was well aware of his own man’s good deeds, even if it was his blunder that handed Woodlands what proved to be the decisive lead 32 minutes into the match.
“He has been sensational all season for us and he had another strong game today,” said Stewart of Zaiful.
“We all make mistakes and just like our strikers, who don’t miss on purpose, our keeper can’t be perfect all the time.”
Zaiful saved superbly towards the end from Rams substitute Rizawan Abdullah, who had received a neat through ball from Laakkad inside the six-yard box.
The opening part of the game was all Gombak, and when they took that early lead the portents did not look good for Shasi and his Woodlands side.
They looked down on confidence, and the way Gombak was penetrating early in the game seemed just the start of an onslaught.
Fazli exchanged passes with Chang before expertly clipping the ball over the keeper’s left shoulder and just inside the right-hand upright.
Fazrul Nawaz, by that stage, had already had a sharp turn and subsequent shot from 20 yards out well saved by Fajar in the sixth minute, and Chang too had seen a close-range effort deflect off a stretched defender’s leg for a corner.
Practically everything was going one way in those early parts of the game, and the Rams looked to be in for a torrid night.
A speculative shot from Park Kang Jin that barely cleared the bar on 18 minutes and another effort from Fazrul, who had stolen possession close to goal, that was saved one-handed by Fajar indicated how well on top the Bulls were at that stage.
Then, with 26 minutes gone, the direction of the game changed completely.
A free kick was awarded by referee K. Kalimuthu to Woodlands, who seemed as baffled as everyone else to earn the chance at goal from just outside the box, as few spotted any obvious infringement.
The ball was tapped to Laakkad, master of the dead ball for the Rams, and the Moroccan cleverly lifted his shot beyond the wall and in at the left of goal, deceiving both the defenders and goalkeeper Zaiful.
At 1-1 Woodlands had a sudden lifeline and they did not waste it.
“I thought that goal was the turning point,” said Shasi. “After that our confidence grew and we were back in the game again.”
Woodlands were certainly fortunate to take the lead six minutes after going level.
Experienced midfielder Sazali Saleh sent a lofted ball forward for his skipper Noor Ali to chase.
Bulls keeper Zaiful challenged the former Singapore international and attempted to punch the ball clear, but instead it fell behind him and to his obvious horror it was on its way into his own net, a goalkeeper’s worst nightmare.
The Rams No.11 needed only to help the ball over the line to avoid a ‘statistical’ own goal and claim the credit, but of course it was keeper error that brought about the winner.
After that the Rams made some astute substitutions, the injured Rachid Lajane making way for Rizawan, who went on to have a very strong game, and Shahri Musa coming on for Winston Yap, who had suffered a first-half knee ailment.
Gombak brought on Zulkiffli Hassim, who did some excellent work on the right after taking over from Ridhwan Jamaludin ten minutes into the second period.
Chang and Zulkiffli both had chances to score in the latter stages of the game, but were wayward with their finishing.
It did not help that Rams goalkeeper Fajar saved so well from Chang after good lead-up work from Zulkiffli, but it was the glaring misses by Fazrul and co. that spared Woodlands as much as anything.
A cheeky chip from the Singapore forward twelve minutes from time clipped the bar, while the same player volleyed over in stoppage time after a nice nod-on from Goran Subara.
“If we can create as many chances as that for the rest of the season, we should be able to win our share of matches,” Stewart observed.
As a consequence of their evening’s work Woodlands passed temporary custody of the wooden spoon to Sengkang Punggol after the narrow win.
The joy was hard to deny for Woodlands, who were victorious for the second time in a fortnight as they collected their ninth point from the same number of games.
“We played well against Geylang (United) and lost, without much luck, so tonight it was probably our turn,” ventured Shasi.
That luck was so elusive to the Bulls that Stewart even resorted to sending on Singapore striker Agu Casmir, who has been sidelined since last November, in place of the forlorn Chang with mere minutes left to go.
He admitted later that he was not even sure the change would have made a difference to the final score.
“It was a gamble and I never intended to use him as he is far from fit, mentally, but even the five minutes he had out there and the play he was involved in will benefit both him and the team later on.”
The entry of an underprepared Agu indicated that Gombak had begun to run out of ideas and with their front-runners off target, Woodlands rode their luck over the closing stages of what turned out to be an enjoyable and close contest.
Not that it would have brought much joy to Stewart, who had commented before the game that Woodlands had been performing well but were short of luck against their opponents.
Reminded of that remark, the Australian gamely offered a wry response.
“I guess I should have shut up!” |
|
|