Written by: Aysha Ridzuan

Hougang United defeated Geylang International 3-1 to end the Eagles’ unbeaten start to the Great Eastern Yeo’s S.League 2016 season at Hougang Stadium on Thursday night.

The Cheetahs who have not lost at home so far this season, went behind in the first-half after Carlos Delgado put the Eagles ahead from the penalty spot

The men in orange came back stronger in the second period when they leveled the score through a Stipe Plazibat’s penalty before Faiz Salleh and Raihan Rahman got on the scoresheet as well.

The hosts could have taken the lead early in the game when Fumiya Kogure crossed from the right to captain Jozef Kaplan, but the Slovakian who is still looking for his first goal this season, fired wide.

The Eagles were then awarded penalty after midfielder Stanely Ng was brought down inside the box. Delgado then stepped up to put Geylang ahead, 15 minutes into the game.

The Argentinean was looking for his second of the night soon after as he attempted a shot from the edge of the box, but it was expertly saved by Hougang custodian, Khairulhin Khalid.

The Cheetahs had a chance to level the score when Nurhilmi Jasni met with Kogure’s free-kick, but Eagles custodian Syazwan Buhari was quick to block his close-range shot.

The visitors continued to pressure, but good goalkeeping from Khairulhin saw the goalkeeper deny the Eagles from doubling their lead when he saved Sahil Suhaimi’s attempt from Gabriel Quak’s corner.

Hougang attacked immediately after the break with Nurhilmi attempting a shot from the edge of the box, only to see it saved by Syazwan.

Seconds later, Plazibat advanced into the box from the right wing, but fired into the side of the net.

It was Hougang’s turn to be awarded a penalty-kick soon after when Kogure was brought down inside the area. Plazibat made no mistake as he fired in his sixth goal of the season to level the score in the 54th minute.

Delgado could have given the Eagles the lead again when he met with Sahil’s pass from the right two minutes later, but M.Anumanthan did enough to stop him before he could take a shot.

Kogure then launched a shot from outside the box but it bounced off Daniel Bennett and resulted in a corner for the hosts in the 59th minute.

It proved to be a crucial corner for Hougang as they took the lead one minute later when Faiz nodded the ball in from Kogure’s corner.

Quak could have helped Geylang pull level in the 70th minute when he pressed through the Hougang defence after meeting with Sahil’s pass, but the former could only send his shot wide.

Geylang failed to convert their chances yet again when Sahil’s shot from inside the box was blocked away by Khairulhin at point-blank as another chance to equalise was wasted.

The Eagles were made to pay for their profligacy two minutes from time whe Raihan fired home the Cheetahs’ third goal inside the 18-yard box to seal a comfortable win.

 

Hougang United head coach, K.Balagumaran: “I am satisfied with the win, it was a good performance from the team. It was also the first time that we came back with three goals after going down.

“I honestly didn’t expect to win like this against Geylang because they are a good team. I thought the first half was a balanced game but we came back stronger in the second half.”

 

Geylang International head coach, Hasrin Jailani: “First of all, credits to Hougang for the win. Overall I think it was not a good performance by us. We were not hungry enough to win tonight.

“But now it would be interesting to see how the boys will bounce back since this is our first loss this season. So I just want to see them come back from this in our next game.”

Hougang United FC: Khairulhin Khalid (GK), Yusiskandar Yusop, Faiz Salleh (Khairulnizam Jumahat 76’), Fairoz Hasan (Iqbal Hussain 67’), M.Anumanthan, Raihan Rahman, Nurhilmi Jasni, Nazrul Nazari, Fumiya Kogure, Jozef Kaplan (C) (Huzaifah Aziz 89’), Stipe Plazibat

Geylang International FC: Syazwan Buhari (GK), Shariff Samat, Daniel Bennett, Faritz Hameed, Al-Qaasimy Rahman, Isa Halim (C) (Nor Azli 64’), Gabriel Quak (Indra Shahdan 81’), Stanely Ng, Carlos Delgado, Amy Recha (Shawal Anuar 75’), Sahil Suhaimi