Home United recorded their second consecutive win in the S.League on Friday night after beating Hougang United 3-2 in an entertaining clash at Jalan Besar Stadium.

Goals inside the opening half hour from Ken Ilso and Song Ui-young put the Protectors in a commanding position before Stipe Plazibat reduced the deficit four minutes before the break from the penalty spot.

Faris Ramli then looked to have secured a comfortable three points for his side when he scored their third in the 78th minute. But Raihan Rahman pulled another back for Hougang with four minutes remaining to set up a nervy finish.

Following last week's 2-1 triumph over Warriors FC, the Protectors now move up to fourth on the table after a three-match unbeaten run. Yet, coach Philippe Aw was still a frustrated figure as he watched Home United stumble over the finishing line in a game that looked theirs for the taking.

After a bright start, they broke the deadlock in the 16th minute when Ilso latched onto Khairul Nizam's incisive pass, skipped outside a defender before drilling his shot into the bottom corner.

Two minutes before the half-hour mark, they doubled their lead through a sweeping counter attack. Song exchanged four passes with Faris to go from one penalty box to another before finishing past Khairulhin Khalid.

However, the Cheetahs had a perfect opportunity to make it 2-1 in the 41st minute after Nazrul Nazari was tripped inside the box by Zulfahmi Arifin. Plazibat made no mistake in converting from 12 yards for his seventh goal of the campaign.

It was the Protectors who continued to look the likelier of the two teams to score again after the break. Aqhari Abdullah flashed the ball across the face of goal shortly after the hour mark before Azhar Sairudin spurned a half chance, unmarked inside the area moments later.

Their third goal did eventually arrive from another brilliant counter in the 78th minute when Faris beat the offside trap to latch onto Syahiran Miswan's brilliant through-pass before firing home.

Yet, they allowed Hougang to stay alive in the contest eight minutes later when Raihan Rahman was left completely unmarked to head home a Fumiya Kogure corner at the near post.

And, in the final minute, it looked as though Jozef Kaplan would be the hero for the Cheetahs. He chested down Plazibat's flick-on and blasted away a ferocious shot, only to see Hyrulnizam Juma'at come to Home's rescue with a victory preserving save at full stretch.

"I'm still very unhappy despite the win because we could have made things easier for ourselves," Aw said. "The players continue to take turns to make individual errors and I hope these mistakes will soon run out, because it's not like we have been outplayed in many of our games.

"We need to focus more and kill off our opponents, rather than allow them to stay alive in the contest."

Meanwhile, Hougang coach K. Balagumaran hailed his side's fighting spirit, even though he was disappointed with the way they conceded the second goal.

"We anticipated that they would counter attack and we watched the videos yesterday where they did exactly the same thing," said the former Gombak United boss.

"But the boys did well to come back in the second half and they really worked their socks off.

"With the fighting spirit they displayed, you could tell they really wanted to get maximum points from this game."

Home United: Hyrulnizam Juma'at, Juma'at Jantan, Abdil Qaiyyim, Zulfahmi Arifin, Sirina Camara, Aqhari Abdullah, Azhar Sairudin (Syahiran Miswan 72'), Song Ui-young, Khairul Nizam (Shamil Sharif 46'), Faris Ramli, Ken Ilso (Sufianto Salleh 85').

Hougang United: Khairulhin Khalid, Nazrul Nazari, Yusiskandar Yusop, M. Anumanthan, Faiz Salleh (Huzaifah Aziz 68'), Raihan Rahman, Nurhilmi Jasni (Fairoz Hasan 66'), Iqbal Hussain (Nur Na'iim Ishak 82'), Fumiya Kogure, Stipe Plazibat, Jozef Kaplan.

Source:
courtesy of ESPNFC

by Gabriel Tan

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