Too little, too late

There was no repeat of the heated scenes from Monday's first leg.

However, the second leg of the RHB Singapore Cup quarter-final clash between Tampines Rovers and Brunei DPMM at the Jurong West Stadium last night still produced some thrills and spills, as Ismadi Mukhtar netted right at the death to hand the Stags a 1-0 win on the night.

But it proved to be too little, too late as Brunei side DPMM progressed to the semi-finals 3-2 on aggregate.

The damage had been done by DPMM in the first leg as they claimed a crucial two-goal cushion, but the talking point from that game had been the post-match fracas which saw Tampines striker Noh Alam Shah accused of spitting at opposing coach Steve Kean.

Both teams did show some lingering ill feeling last night as the encounter was punctuated with the odd squabble and some pushing and shoving.

But Kean was glad that there was no repeat of the heated exchanges from Monday.

Asked about the saga, the Scot said: "I just spoke to the coaching staff from Tampines and I'm not one to hold grudges.

"What happened has happened and I'm just glad everyone can move on from the incident now."

Kean, though, was unhappy with his side's performance, as they allowed their opponents to dominate from the start.

With Ridhuan Muhamad and Firdaus Idros running riot down the flanks, the hosts had the ball in the DPMM box on many occasions, but they were just unable to carve out a clear-cut opening.

COMING CLOSE

Mateo Roskam met a Shaiful Esah cross with a glancing header just past the post shortly before the half-hour mark, while Rodrigo Tosi nodded over from another excellent Shaiful delivery early in the second half.

Firdaus then came close to providing the breakthrough in the 61st minute, but there was no one to convert his looping cross.

The Stags ultimately got their goal deep in injury-time. The referee awarded a penalty after Tosi was dragged down by Joe Gamble.

Mustafic Fahrudin fired his penalty straight at Wardun Yussof but Ismadi lashed home the rebound.

With their Singapore Cup dream over, Tampines coach V Sundramoorthy said that they will have to go for broke in their Great Eastern-Yeo's S.League title bid.

"We have no choice now but to focus on the league as that's the only thing we have left," he said.

"The boys are all professionals and they will come back stronger… they know it's all about the league now, nothing else.

"They really tried their best tonight, but you need to put the ball into the back of the net to win a football match.

"If we had converted our chances earlier, I believe we would have caught them but, in the end, our goal came just a little too late."

TAMPINES ROVERS: Rodrigo Pacheco, Ismadi Mukhtar, Mustafic Fahrudin, Pedrag Pocuca, Shaiful Esah (Zulfadli Zainal Abidin 80), Ridhuan Muhamad (Noh Alam Shah 65), Isa Halim, Fabian Kwok (Jamil Ali 83), Firdaus Idros, Mateo Roskam, Rodrigo Tosi.

BRUNEI DPMM: Wardun Yussof, Aminuddin Zakwan, Boris Raspudic, Brian McLean, Sairol Sahari, Rosmin Kamis, Joe Gamble, Azwan Saleh (Maududi Hilmi 89), Shahrazen Said (Adi Said 66), Rafael Ramazotti, Azwan Ali.

TNP MAN OF THE MATCH: Rosmin Kamis (Brunei DPMM)

TODAY'S Q-FINAL

Albirex Niigata v Balestier Khalsa - 1st leg (Jurong East Stadium, 7.30pm)

LAST NIGHT'S OTHER Q-FINAL

1st leg - Global FC 0 Geylang International 1

This article was first published on August 14, 2015.
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