Steve Kean commended his team for its mercifulness in front of the goal after it tear the Young Lions apart in a Great Eastern Yeo S-League match on Sunday.
The manager said their substantial goal difference could come in easy at the end of the season.
DPMM has moved to second with their 4th win from six games, creating the best goal difference in the league after scoring 14 goals while letting in a league low of four.
DPMM’s coach is hopeful that their fiercest rival, Tampines Rovers will continue to weaken as a result of their AFC Cup campaign.
It was noted that Tampines Rovers was defeated by Hougang United in a match on Saturday of 4-2 run, giving the Stags their first defeat of the season.
After seeing that his team had recorded its biggest victory margin in this season’s competition, Kean happily said, “I wasn't expecting so many goals.”
“What's good about today is the goal difference, and you never know when that will be important,” Kean continues.
“Tampines are playing in the AFC Cup and if they travel I hope they will get tired and drop points,” said Kean. The coach was referring to the Stags' 5-2 victory over Pune FC on Tuesday.
The Young Lions’ Sherif El Masri was able to make a goal on the 23 minute mark of the game against DPMM at Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah National Stadium in Brunei, leaving DPMM behind. But, the team came back and took a 2-1 advantage.
Roy O'Donovan and Rodrigo Tosi finished the game with braces, while Azwan Ali Rahman and Roberto Alviz was also able to make a mark on the score sheet.
Kean felt that it was his talk with the team during half-time that gave them a chance to boost their tactics that led to the team's sweet victory.
Although, he refused to blame Tosi and O'Donovan for missing chances to grab hat-tricks.
“The main thing is we took our chances,” insisted Kean.
“I told them at half-time that when you fall behind it's about how you react.”
“The goal was a deflection and it's easy to feel sorry for yourself and be nervous, but I told them that sometimes courage means wanting to get on the ball.”
“In the second half I told the players to get the ball and put crosses into the box because I felt we were causing the Young Lions problems with that,” the coach continues.
Meanwhile, the Young Lions’ coach, Aide Iskandar was understandably less pleased with his team's performance which he put down to inexperience.
“We have a lot of young players and they lacked concentration tonight,” said Iskandar.
“They couldn't handle the pressure and I hope they can learn from this.”
Catat Ulasan