HARIMAU MUDA 1
Maxsius Musa 75′
HOUGANG UNITED 2
Mamadou Diallo 41′, Azhar Sairudin 52 pen’
The Cheetahs became the second team to obtain a valuable away win at the Stadium Perbadanan Pasir Gudang, as they ran away 2-1 winners.
It was the Cheetahs first win in the league since May, when they defeated DPMM FC at Hougang Stadium. The Cheetahs were playing a weakened Harimau Muda side, which was without their aces Ashmawi Yakin and Ridzuan Abdunloh.
The Cheetahs controlled almost the entire period of the game, however were restricted outside the penalty box due to the ultra defensive young Tigers. The Cheetahs then played with ten men from the 25th minute mark, when Fazly Hasan was sent off due to his second bookable offense.
For most teams, that would been the end of any chances of a victory, but the boys would never give up without a fight. Coach Amin have viable options back in defence, and decided to sacrifice speedy winger Nurhilmi Jasni with captai Lau Meng Meng, back from his suspension.
It proved to be much a handful duty for the young Tigers to handle Mamadou Diallo, as a cross from Fairoz Hasan was met by the Guinean, and his header managed to beat the Harimau keeper to give the Cheetahs the lead on 41 minutes.
That was the score at half time, and the Cheetahs came back stronger on 2nd half.
The game was duly settled on 52 minutes, when goalkeeper Ramadhan Hamid fouled Mamadou Diallo after he was sent clear on goal. The custodian only received his caution, and Azhar Sairudin successfully converted his penalty to give a 2-0 lead for the Cheetahs.
Amin Nasir then decided to go for the defensive by sending Jerome Baker in to replace Fairoz Hasan to put the Canadian lone upfront to disrupt the tempo of the game. However, Harimau Muda managed to get their consolation goal on 75 minutes. Maxsius Musa using his trickery to go past the entire Hougang defence, before trickling the ball home past Singapore international keeper Fadhil Salim.
The Cheetahs managed to hold on a nervy last 15 minutes, before celebrating their first victory in the league for three months.
HOUGANG UNITED
Fadhil Salim, Igor Cerina, Syaqir Sulaiman, Faizal Amir, Fazly Hassan (sent off 25′), Thomas Beattie, Azhar Sairudin (Sobrie Mazelan 74′), Fazli Jaffar, Nurhilmi Jasni (Lau Meng Meng 26′), Fairoz Hasan (Jerome Baker 59′), Mamadou Diallo
HARIMAU MUDA
Ramadhan Hamid, S. Vikneswaran, Asri Mardzuki, Farizzuan Azhar (Akmal Ishak 66′), Syafiq Shalihin, Osman Yusoff, Yazid Zaini, Akhir Bahari, Iskandar Hanapiah (Hafis Saperi 70′), Faizat Ghazli, Maxsius Musa
