Written by: Phoon Jia Hui

A late goal from Azwan Ali sealed a last-gasp 3-2 win for Brunei DPMM against Courts Young Lions as they ended a four-match winless streak to go four points clear at the top of the Great Eastern Yeo’s S.League standings.

Speaking after the match, Young Lions coach Aide Iskandar felt that it was one of the best games from his charges.

However, he was left disappointed with his side’s inability to put away the chances they had created especially in the first-half.

“I feel sorry for the boys. They tried their best to play against league leaders,” said the ex-international.

“Unfortunately we didn’t focus. We failed to deal with one long ball and we got punished. Generally I thought this was probably one of the best games we played, because we managed to get two goals.

“What was disappointing when we were at 1-0 we could have extended our lead, but we didn’t and now we have go back to drawing board and keep working hard. As a back four, we need to do a lot better, we cannot be conceding from corners. Hopefully they will get better.”

Captain Sahil Suhaimi scored the team’s second goal with a peach of a strike and while Aide was encouraged with his contribution, he thought the 22-year-old forward ‘could have done better’.

“He got a goal today, but I thought he could have done a lot better in terms of his movement,” he said.

“It wasn’t one of his best games but he tried his best, having played two games in the space of four days.  But it was tough as the focus was on him. Whenever he got the ball, three or four players would close down on him.”

Describing Sahil’s goal as ‘preventable’, DPMM coach Steve Kean meanwhile admitted his side were not at their best and singled out Young Lions’ Jordan Webb for praise.

“I thought there was a spell in game we controlled and all of a sudden we looked fatigued,” he said.

“Some players struggled to hold the play and intensity, like Rodrigo [Tosi]. We suffered a little bit and that was something we got to analyse and address.

“The energy Young Lions put in was better in the last twenty minutes. They put us under a lot of pressure, especially Webb who caused us a lot of problems with his direct running so much that I had to put Joe Gamble at right-back to stop him.”

With the victory, the ex-Blackburn Rovers manager hoped this would be the start of another good run of form in the league with five games to go before the end of round two as they look to the strengthen their claims for the title.

“Teams go through good and bad spells. We are scrappy and letting in goals at the moment, but I hope this is a start to another good run,” he concluded.