Written by Kenneth Ho

Tampines Rovers coach Salim Moin was unperturbed about his team’s first loss in the Great Eastern Yeo’s 2014 season after going down 4-2 to Hougang United at Hougang Stadium on Saturday evening.

After the defeat, Salim blamed fatigue for the loss and insisted his team tried their best to achieve a result despite falling behind early on in the match, whereby they conceded three goals within 12 minutes into the match.

“The most important thing is my players don’t have enough rest. You can see the movements from my players that they are trying, definitely they want to win the game but and unfortunately due to fatigue they did not,“ Salim said.

“But second half they came back strongly to score the goals, in the first if my strikers had converted the goals the scoreline would have been different. From 3-1 you can see my team was different.“

Tampines have also had to make many comebacks in the season, after being the first team to concede in many matches. However, Salim was adamant it was not an issue as long as his team continued to show fighting spirit to not lose games.

He said, “I am not concerned. I know this team is capable of coming back, whether it is the first 2 minutes of whether in the second half. They have shown this character because they have this winning mentality, “

“To be very honest my players are not well, but what I really salute them for their characters so I am really proud to be associated with them. My job is to motivate them and to be sure they are ready to play. “

Hougang United coach Amin Nasir was more than pleased with his players after they beat the reigning champions, and he was effusive in his praise for his team.

“The performance was brilliant from my players and they fought very hard,“ he said. “I mean after we are leading at three, we were quite comfortable. “

With first-choice goalkeeper Fadhil Salim out with an injury, Amin was also adamant reserve custodian Nazri Sabri had a shot of keeping his place in his team.

“The whole team definitely because if the whole team play well then the strikers can score, but lets not forget our goalkeeper since he replaced Fadhil who is injured, he has been putting in quite good performances,“ Amin said.

“Definitely Fadhil l need to fight for his place, if the goalkeeper Nazri Sabri performs well then I see no reason to replace him. “

However, as always Amin was keen to stress to his team that they cannot be afford to complacent, even though the result was splendid for his team to achieve.

“We are glad we started well but there are more games to come it won’t be easy. This victory will definitely help our team spirit and morale, so as I told the boys, we have to keep our heads on the ground.“