Written by: Muhammad Yazid

No team could be separated as Home United and Brunei DPMM picked up the crumbs of a 1-1 draw in the first-leg encounter of the RHB Singapore Cup semi-final.

It would have been a perfect evening for Home’s coach Lee Lim Saeng if his side had gained the advantage for the second leg by winning the game, but that was not the case, as Roy O’Donovan struck fifteen minutes from time to level the game.

The coach was very pleased with the performance that his side put up, but he blamed the cruelty in football where performances do not always go along with results.

“We played very well tonight and our performance was better than our previous game where we won them 2-1,” Lee expressed.

“As a coach I felt that our overall performance was better but we just could not get the result.

“We could not connect our performance and result, but this is part of football and my homework would be on how to bring the two together.”

However, the ex-South Korean international admitted that DPMM were a better team.

“Tonight, our opponents were better than us but I want to thank my players because they tried their best,“ he applauded both teams.

“We kept trying to attack again and again till the last minute but unfortunately we could not get the second goal.

“DPMM are at the top of the league which means that they are a very good side, but we did show our strengths.”

His counterpart, Steve Kean, felt that it was a game of two halves, and that his team dominated the second.

“This game is similar to the one we played in Brunei. They were better in the first half but we came back in the second,” Kean commented.

“We gave them too much space to play at the start. The back four was deep and the front three was isolated.

“Thus, the middle of the pitch belonged to home in the first half. But in the second, we squeezed out and had Rodrigo Tosi to drop in at the holes.

“We packed them up and that gave us the platform to control the second half. I rather we play better in the second half.”

The former Blackburn Rovers manager also felt that his team could have won the game if it did not end so soon.

“The end of the game came a little bit too soon. I was hoping for another ten minutes because we were pushing to get the winning goal,” he shared.