S-League: Jaguars self-destruct

SINGAPORE - At the final whistle, the Tanjong Pagar players slumped onto the Queenstown turf on Sunday night, wondering what had just happened.

Against all odds, the S-League's bottom team, the Courts Young Lions, had just earned their first victory of the season against the high-flying home side.

The Jaguars would have climbed to second spot with a win on Sunday night. But they had nobody but themselves to blame for the humbling.

The Young Lions did not play spectacular football.

In fact, they looked sloppy at times, and even spurned not one, but two penalties during the game.

But they got the goal they needed when Jaguars defender Anthony Aymard diverted Ignatius Ang's cross past his own goalkeeper with just 11 minutes to go.

Tanjong Pagar coach Patrick Vallee made no excuses for the defeat. "For me, the defeat is only our fault," he said glumly.

"I told my players we needed to be perfect technically, in our crosses, passes, shots.

"But on Sunday night, there was nothing. We didn't perform technically."

The Young Lions started the match nervously and their backline made several unforced errors in the opening minutes.

The mistakes left their coach, Aide Iskandar, holding both his hands over his head, almost in a show of surrender.

But they were handed the opportunity to take the lead in the 28th minute when Sherif El-Masri was felled by John Wilkinson in the penalty box.

Canadian winger El-Masri, however, smacked his shot against the upright. Tanjong Pagar came storming back and went close through Ismael Benahmed and Asraf Rashid, while Hafiz Nor had a penalty claim turned down by referee Mohd Farhad.

Disaster

Then, on 79 minutes, disaster struck for the Jaguars. Just after coming onto the pitch Young Lions substitute Ang dribbled into the box and sent in a low cross which was eventually turned into goal by Aymard.

Three minutes later, a second penalty was awarded to the visitors after El-Masri was fouled again in the box, this time by Ahmad Latiff.

But Sahil Suhaimi saw his fierce spotkick saved by Tanjong Pagar goalkeeper Aurelien Herisson.

Just when it looked like the Jaguars had luck on their side, they imploded when Latiff was sent off in the 88th minute, after picking up a second yellow card in a tangle with Sheikh Abdul Hadi.

Aide hailed his players for their first win, which came on their 20th attempt, but admitted it was somewhat fortuitous.

"I'm very happy for the boys, they've grown from strength to strength," he said.

"No disrespect to Tanjong Pagar, but I think on Sunday we were better physically, in terms of our fitness.

"It (the sloppy play early on) was something that made me nervous, but thankfully Tanjong Pagar didn't take the chances that came their way.

"Now, we still have a few games and then the half-round (of five matches), so hopefully we can go on and collect more points."

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