Written By: Kenneth Ho

Hougang United coach Amin Nasir was delighted his tactical preparation for the match against Balestier Khalsa paid off as the Cheetahs earned a 3-0 victory over the Tigers in their Group D match opener on Tuesday evening.

While admitting that having a long break – Hougang’s last game was played on 23 June – helped his side to look sharper and fresher, Amin believed that it was the preparation prior to the game that saw them through.

“Of course when you have extra day offs like this it is very important. I am glad we got a two weeks break and now we are fresh the way I look at it,” Amin shared.

“Personally, I believe we played well, but even though we played well I can’t say it was easy because Balestier are a good physical side so somehow I feel that it was our tactical plan that worked,” he went on.

“Again this is down to preparing well, we anticipated what they were going to do and not only our goalkeeper but our defenders did very well, and our midfield controlled the game, and the three goals scored, it was all brilliant.”

There were plenty of positives such as the clean sheet and or the three goals for Amin to choose from, but the Hougang coach insisted that each aspect was just as important to him.

“In general everything was important. You get the performances you get the results, especially because it is the group stages. You get the three points and the first is all important for confidence especially with the Brunei DPMM game next week,” he explained.

Amin’s counterpart Balestier coach Marko Kraljevic expressed his dismay at starting the League Cup with a loss, but he stated that there was no point dwelling on the result.

“I think the boys were very tired, we were trying our best but our movements and passes were just not good enough. I am upset but they are trying very hard,” Kraljevic said.

“We lost 3-0, but we should move on and focus on the next game.”

While the Balestier coach did think that his players were fatigued, he insisted that he had no issues with the amount of games the Tigers have had to play in recent weeks, even though they have just played their fifth game in 18 days.

“No issue about rest. Everybody is in the same shoes, we all have to play the same amount of games, we focus on the next game,” the Croatian claimed.