The Courts Young Lions stood their ground against title-pursuing Home United at the Jalan Besar Stadium on Wednesday evening, in the end returning endlessly with a 1-1 draw.
Midfielder Shamil Sharif gave the home side the lead on the 15 minute mark of the game, after he headed in a rebound. However the Protectors battled back and adjusted in splendid manner on the stroke of half time through Yasir Hanapi's volley.
Home captain, Noh Rahman, who was making his fresh beginning since his comeback from a knee injury had a bad night as he got sent off seven minutes after the break in the wake of earning a second bookable offense.
Regardless of losing a man down, Home dominated the second period as they attempted futile to discover the winning goal with the Young Lions clinging in for the draw.
Both teams entered the game from their resonating wins from the past week, the Young Lions defeating Hougang United with a whopping 3-0 run, while Home pounded opponents Warriors FC to 4-1.
The match began in rankling pace as both groups tried each goalkeepers’ ability within the first minute of kickoff. Iqbal Hussain's wild shot was held well by Shahril Jantan, while Bruno Castenheira's strike was palmed away by Syazwan Buhari.
The home side broke the deadlock after Shamil bagged his third goal of the season.
Sherif El-Masri's shot from the left was spared by Shahril, however the 22-year-old was close by to nod home the rebound into the net.
Ten minutes later, Qiu Li then had a break on goal on the edge of the penalty box, yet his shot went simply wide off the post as Syazwan stood to the spot.
Just as the game is nearing the end of half time, Yasir took matters into his own particular hands as he intercepted a clearance and sent an exceptional volley into the far corner to level the scores.
Just as when the Protectors are attempting to take an initiative in the second period, they suffered a setback in the 52nd minute. Noh's critical challenge on Stanely Ng gave the gave the referee no other option but to glimmer him a second yellow card, guaranteeing a hopeless come back to the side.
Then again, Home kept on dominating the game as the Young Lions played on the counter. Indra Sahdan presumably had the best opportunity to scratch the winning goal 15 minutes from time, yet he missed it from 10 yards out in the wake of getting to Castanheira's cutback.
The consequence means Home scale to second on 20 points, heading Warriors FC and Tampines Rovers by goal difference given they had played more matches.
Protector coach Lee Lim-saeng said the points were dropped by his team, however gave credit to the Young Lions for their great performance.
Coach Lee Lim-saeng said in a post-match press conference, “We should have beaten Young Lions tonight because we needed the three points.
Tonight, the Young Lions showed good mentality. I feel the fitness of the Young Lions was better than us.”
“But looking at the performance in the second half, even with 10 men, the opponent also didn’t make a chance.
We made the chance. If Indra managed to score, the game would have been different.”
On the other hand, Young Lions coach Aide Iskander was more contented despite of losing their initial lead.
“I’m glad the boys continued their good form from their last match when we beat Hougang,” Aide said.
“I told the boys before the start of the game, don’t be surprised if you’re 1-0 up in this match' and true enough, we showed a lot of self-belief today, a lot of confidence and it’s a good sign. I hope we can improve from here.”
“We didn’t let them play tonight, that was the game plan. If we allowed them to play, they have players like Lee [Kwan Woo], Qiu Li and Indra collecting the ball and if we give them space, they will kill us.”
“But they were really frustrated at not getting the supplies. They are a quality side, but credit to my boys at the end of the day as they have shown a lot of maturity, so that’s a good sign,” Aide concluded.
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