GEYLANG INTERNATIONAL 2
Jozef Kaplan 65′, Khairulnizam Jumahat 87′
HOUGANG UNITED 0
The Cheetahs huffed and puffed, but could not blow the Eagles defence down – most probably the best sentence to describe the Cheetahs yesterday.
Despite controlling almost the entire game, a second successive defeat had arrived, a 2-0 defeat against Geylang International at Bedok Stadium leaves them in eighth place and an unwanted five game winless streak.
The first half was an even affair with both sides having equal chances. Geylang in particularly had a goal bound shot cleared off, if not for a goal line clearance by Hasree Zais after four minutes.
Hougang, with our English duo Shotton and Beattie out with injuries had their particular chances, especially with Jerome Baker having two one on one situations with Geylang’s custodian Joey Sim reacting excellently on both occasions
The Cheetahs came out for the second half looking more to nick a goal, however, the Eales defence were looking compact and solid for the Cheetahs to breach. Whenever a Hougang player’s pass went astray, they were quick to counter attac, led by their skipper Jozef Kaplan.
The Eagles went ahead with on of the counter attacks, when Jozef Kaplan went past the Cheetahs’ defence and blast the ball past Fadhil Salim on 65 minutes.
By then coach Weaver decided to bring in his trump card, Basit Hamid, who replaced Fazli Jaffar on the left.
The move had initially worked, with crosses coming in from the left, chances fell on Jerome Baker, Mamadou Diallo and Syaqir Sulaiman all either been wide off the goalpost, or caught by Joey Sim.
The Cheetahs’ unusually high line of defence had been the main cause for late goals, which Ismael Benahmed had cruelly punished them the last time round. This time around, the Cheetahs’ defence was caught out by Jozef Kaplan, who had tormented the defence all night.
His pace caught out the defence in another counter, with substitute Khairulnizam Jumahat unmarked at the far post, Kaplan feed him the ball, and Khairulnizam made no mistake in slamming the ball home to give the Eagles all three points, in which they had been on their back foot all night.
The Cheetahs had a last minute consolation goal denied when Mamadou Diallo goalbound shot saved by Joey Sim on the goal line.
The Cheetahs will have a 12-day break before facing Balestier Khalsa at their rightful abode at Hougang Stadium. The Cheetahs will have to work out to their drawing board again and hopefully return to winning ways, starting with the next game.
HOUGANG UNITED
Fadhil Salim, Syaqir Sulaiman, Hasree Zais, Faizal Amir, Fazly Hasan (Lau Meng Meng 65′), Azhar Sairudin, Mamadou Diallo, Jeremy Chiang, Robert Eziakor, Jerome Baker, Fazli Jaffar (Basit Hamid 70′)
GEYLANG INTERNATIONAL
Joey Sim, Khayrulhayat Jumat, Delwinder Singh, Jalal (Duncan Elias 45′), Norihiro Kawakami, Nurhazwan Norasikin, Taufiq Ghani (Khairulnizam Jumahat 86′), Andrew Tan, Jozef Kaplan, Shotaro Ihata (Wahyudi Wahid 69′)
