Written By: Kenneth Ho

Home United coach Philippe Aw has vowed to improve the club’s fortune next season after finishing the 2015 Great Eastern Yeo’s S.League in sixth spot.

The placing was achieved after a 2-1 win over Courts Young Lions in both teams’’ final league game of the season, with goals from Ken Ilso and Stanely Ng helping them overcome their spirited younger counterparts.

While Aw was certainly not pleased to finish in sixth place, he believed he could not fault his team for a lack of effort.

“Us finishing sixth, of course we are not happy, but if you look at the performances at the same time, the boys have done very well,” Aw asserted.

“(It was the same tonight), whatever we did the ball just did not want to go in, during the season we dominated games, but we can’t score.”

Aw  was also happy this season has seen the emergence of several youngsters – Stanely Ng, Sufianto Salleh and R.Aaravin are some of those who have made the step up to fight for a first-team spot.

“We came into this season intent on blooding youths and we are happy that the youths have grabbed their chances. Stanely scored his fourth goal of the season today, and before this he hasn’t scored at all so that’s 400% improvement,” he shared.

“We will keep the core of the squad and try to get better and play even more entertaining football for the fans next season.”

The win also ended a run of four straight losses in the league, and set the Protectors up nicely for their second leg of the RHB Singapore Cup semi-final tie with Brunei DPMM, where they have to overturn a 3-2 deficit.

“This win is very important for the boys, they really deserved this. The past four games that we lost – it (the performances) were not bad, but we lost,” Aw added.

“We go into the semis on a winning momentum, and the boys know that that their hard work will pay off if they work hard enough.”

Young Lions coach Juergen Raab applauded the Protectors for a deserved victory, as he conceded his side were second-best all night long.

Even when the Young Lions had taken the lead against the run of play, Raab admitted he was tentative about holding out for a win.

“It was a little lucky for us (to score the first goal) because I think in the first half Home had the better chances,” Raab said.

“With the goal I hoped we had more safety and more control over the game but we must say it was deserved that Home have won this game.

“We wanted to finish the season with a success, and maybe crown the season with 30 points and. it would be an extraordinary result but it was a deserved loss.”