Written By: Kenneth Ho

Courts Young Lions stunned Hougang United 3-0 at Hougang Stadium on Friday evening to earn their second win of the season after ten games, and Young Lions coach Aide Iskandar was unable to contain his delight at the result.

“I feel good, very proud of the boys, they showed they really wanted it and I think they deserved it after working very hard for the past one week,” Aide said.

“We were clinical in terms of our chances, we came with a game plan to not allow Hougang to play in the midfield, and we did that.”

Aide believed his side could have scored more, but added he was more pleased by his side’s first clean sheet of the season, which he attributed to his goalkeeper Syazwan Buhari and the return of his defender Delwinder Singh from injury.

“It is important, I think it was timely he (Delwinder) could feature in today’s match, and it was the most important thing for us to get a clean sheet,” Aide shared.

“I told the boys before the match to get me the clean sheet and the three points, and they gave me both today so I am really glad.

The former Singapore captain added that this was the best he has seen from his team, but cautioned that his team were still a project in progress.

“In terms of team spirit and team work, I think tonight is definitely the best. I think belief is always there, but like I said they are young and physically they always struggle against bigger players, but they are learning,” he said.

Hougang coach Amin Nasir was left shell-shocked by the result, but said it was bound to happen after his defence ’fell asleep’ during the match.

“Just somehow we couldn’t play, our backline fell asleep. This is sad,” Amin said.

“Yea, we have been scoring goals for a couple games, I didn’t expect the 3-0 but if you chase the game when you are two down, you loosen up at the back and they capitalised on that.”

However, the Cheetahs’ coach refused to pinpoint the blame on any individual, and instead said that games were won and lost together.

“We are second best for tonight,” Amin stated, “We take it as a whole, we don’t pinpoint on anybody for the loss.

“For today, our effort was not good enough; this is not the Hougang team we have been seeing for the couple of games back.”