Written by: Muhammad Yazid

Warriors FC got back to winning ways after their most recent 1-0 victory over Woodlands Wellington thanks to a first-half penalty by Miroslav Pejic.

Warriors coach Alex Weaver was a very pleased man with the slender victory as he felt that Woodlands gave a very good fight.

“Credit to Woodlands. As I have mentioned earlier, Darren Stewart’s side is very hardworking. It was difficult to break them down but we did it in the first half. We had a couple of chances in the second half but we were fantastic in the first.

“We were in control in the second half; we had periods of keeping the ball. But we were not as sharp and switched on in going forward and lost the ball a couple of times,” the gaffer admitted.

However, Weaver was disappointed his team did not manage to kill of their opponents with a second goal, and had to endure a nervy end to the game.

“We could have wrapped up the win a lot earlier. We could have capitalised and gotten the second goal which would have made it a little less tense in the end.”

Weaver also credited the win to his goalkeeper Neezam Aziz’s performance, especially given the fact that the custodian was a virtual bystander in the first half.

“Neezam played exceptionally well today.  He didn’t have much to do in the first half and credits should go to him because of that. He kept his concentration and sharpness and it looks like we are rewarded for the games we gave him in the pre-season. He is capable and knows the situation, and did very well tonight,” Weaver praised.

His counterpart, Darren Stewart was disappointed with his side’s first defeat, although the ex-Australian International believed it was a loss his side fully deserved.

“I feel disappointed for the lads because we could have pinched it at the end with an equaliser like how Albirex Niigata (S) did to us last week,” Stewart said.

“We were lucky in the first half because we could have gone down by more goals. Warriors were the better team and the result is fair.”

Stewart also did not put the blame on anybody else but on himself.

“I take full responsibility of this defeat because maybe I over-trained the boys a bit too hard to prepare for the game. They were carrying heavy legs because of me,” he concluded.