Photo Credits: Christina Seah Rodrigues (Voxsports.net)
HOUGANG UNITED 4
Jerome Baker 13′, Fazli Jaffar 47′, Azhar Sairudin 59′, Mamadou Diallo 63′
GEYLANG INTERNATIONAL 1
Norihiro Kawakami 53′
It was raining heavily just before the game, but that did not dampened the spirit of the Hougang boys, particularly on their last home game of the 2013 season.
The Cheetahs took opportunity after their previous three defeat against the Eagles; in the League Cup and also in the S.League, by demolishing them 4-1 on Tuesday night.
The Hougang boys decided to put up a fantastic performance in front of their home crowd. The Cheetahs almost took the lead as early as five minutes, when Mamadou Diallo got past his marker, but he shot his shot wide.
Fazli Jaffar then latched on a cross from Jerome Baker minutes later, but Takuma Ito managed to grabbed the ball after a fantastic save.
However, the Cheetahs took the lead, after an awful error by Takuma Ito.
Azhar Sairudin executed an excellent through ball through the middle, that prompted the Japanese custodian to get onto the ball, however, he missed it, and the lumbering Jerome Baker managed to evade the entire defence, as well as Ito, as he slotted the ball home into an empty net.
The Cheetahs then had another wonderful chance when Fazli Jaffar again latched onto another perfect cross from Nurhilmi Jasni, however, he hit the wrong side of the net.
The second half didn’t changed Hougang’s hunger in front of the goal, as Fazli Jaffar solo effort on 47 minutes, managed to beat Ito for a precious two goal lead.
Although Norihiro Kawakami managed to get a goal back to put the Eagles back into the game, it didn’t dampen the Cheetahs’ spirit as they went for more.
The Cheetahs then raced into a 3-1 lead on 59 minutes through a potential contender for the Goal of the Season. A short corner kick into Azhar Sairudin’s path, and the midfielder managed to struck a rocket shot into the cross bar and into the net.
Four minutes later, the Cheetahs complete their scoring, when Mamadou Diallo managed to start and attack, and through Fazli Jaffar’s one to one passes, the Guinean managed to shoot past Takuma Ito for a 4-1 lead.
The score remained the same, up till the final whistle. After the final whistle, the Hougang Boys, plus the coaches and the technical staff applauded their gratitude of thanks to the vociferous Hougang Hools, who had been there for the boys for the whole season. In response, the HOOLS laud out the cheer towards the players, as well as a farewell song for outgoing technical manager, Akashah Harith, who would be leaving the team at the end of November.
The victory meant that Hougang leapfrogged Harimau Muda up to 10th place, with the Young Tigers still two games in hand. However, the Cheetahs will be guaranteed to finish at least 9th place, if they managed a victory against Courts Young Lions at Jalan Besar next Wednesday, with either Geylang or DPMM losing, and Harimau Muda to lose all their remaining games.
HOUGANG UNITED
Fadhil Salim, Igor Cerina, Syaqir Sulaiman, Lau Meng Meng, Faizal Amir, Thomas Beattie, Azhar Sairudin (Fazly Hasan 69′), Fazli Jaffar, Nurhilmi Jasni, Jerome Baker (Fairoz Hasan 81′), Mamadou Diallo (Basit Hamid 74′)
GEYLANG INTERNATIONAL
Takuma Ito, Delwinder Singh, Norihiro Kawakami, Jalal, Wyldan Wisam (Nurhazwan Norasikin 71′), Stefan Milojevic (Ahmad Khidhir 83′), Yasir Hanapi, Noor Ali, Taufiq Ghani (Fuad Ramli 58′), Wahyudi Wahid, Jozef Kaplan
