Geylang International hand Tanjong Pagar United 10th straight S’pore Premier League loss

SINGAPORE – Despite slipping to their 10th straight defeat in the Singapore Premier League after falling 2-1 to Geylang International on April 19, Tanjong Pagar United coach Noh Alam Shah felt there was “great improvement” in their performance.

Following a spirited display at Our Tampines Hub, where they led before the Eagles sealed a comeback win, the former Singapore international’s reaction was in stark contrast to the tongue-lashing that he had given his players after losing 1-0 to the Young Lions on April 10.

“The intensity was good and this was the demand throughout training, days prior to this game. The high press was good and we scored the goal out of it,” he said.

On their losing run, he said: “The players have gone through these last 10 matches, half of it without our five or six first-team foreigners.”

The imports’ absence was largely due to injuries, with Alam Shah saying he takes “full responsibility for the recruitment process”.

“It’s lesson learnt for everybody in this club... going forward, we will be much more serious in who we are recruiting from overseas,” he added.

With four games left, the Jaguars sit bottom of the eight-team SPL on four points, four below the seventh-placed Young Lions.

The match had kicked off after nearly an hour-long delay due to the activation of the lightning warning system.

The first chance came in the 16th minute for Geylang.

A long ball from Kaisei Ogawa sent Riku Fukashiro through on goal, but the latter saw his effort cleared off the line by Jaguars defender Syed Akmal.

But it was Tanjong Pagar who drew first blood in the 27th minute.

A mazy run from Vabio Canavaro found Zenivio Mota, whose effort was parried by Eagles custodian Rudy Khairullah. But the ball fell kindly to Junior Djile and the Italian made no mistake, slotting the ball into the bottom corner.

It took just five minutes for Geylang to restore parity.

A long ball from Nikola Ignjatovic found Fukashiro, who beat defender Kim Li-kwan and calmly slid the ball past substitute goalkeeper Matthew Silva, who had replaced an injured Zaiful Nizam.

The Eagles came close to taking the lead in the 44th minute, when Ryoya Taniguchi’s curler from 20 metres struck the outside of Silva’s post.

Taniguchi had yet another chance to give the Eagles the lead in the 60th minute when he received a long ball from deep but, with only Silva to beat, he skewed his shot wide.

But the Japanese forward eventually got his goal in the 83rd minute, when he sent a header looping over Silva after connecting with Naufal Ilham’s cross.

Taniguchi said: “Actually, I feel very bad, you know... First half, I had four or five chances and I missed them all.

“In the second half also, two or three misses. I thought today was not my day, but I finally scored and we won.

“The good thing is that we played well and made chances and many chances means more tries to score.”

Eagles coach Noor Ali said they had enough chances to kill off the game earlier, but did not take them.

He added: “We’ve got to give credit to Tanjong Pagar. They worked really hard, chased us and gave us a hard time in terms of pressing.”

With four games left, the Eagles are fifth in the SPL on 23 points with their sights set on fourth spot, which is occupied by Balestier Khalsa with 26 points.

“It’s only between us and Balestier for the fourth position at this point of time and we will play them twice,” Noor noted.

Analysis

Despite a spirited display from Tanjong Pagar, they were undone by a late Taniguchi goal.

Jaguars coach Alam Shah can take comfort in the grit his side showed. With four games to go – against Albirex Niigata, Hougang United, Balestier Khalsa and the Cheetahs again – his charges will need to show more conviction in front of goal if they want to avoid being wooden spoonists again.