Written by: Muhammad Yazid

Woodlands Wellington slipped to tenth place in the league table after losing 2-0 to Geylang International in a live match of the Great Eastern Yeo’s S.League season.

Goals by Aliff Shafaein and and Ridhuan Muhammad in either half meant that the Eagles moved up to eighth position in the standings.

A huge lump of Woodlands’ players were unavailable for the game, including captain Rosman Sulaiman, goalkeeper Yazid Yasin and defender Bah Mamadou.

Nevertheless, they fielded a strong line-up. Stefan Milojevic, who returned to the pitch after a back injury which took him six months to recover, was pulling the strings in midfield against his former club, just in front of a three-man backline consisting of skipper for the night, Shahril Alias, Walid Lounis and Milos Jevtic.

The Rams started the ball rolling very impressively, as they maintained the organisation while pressing hard upfront on Geylang.

Serbian compatriots each fancied a chance for themselves, as Jevtic saw his header fly over the bar before Milojevic’s effort from outside the penalty box was too tame and easy for Joey Sim to handle.

As for the Eagles, skipper Ridhuan was shifted to a right-back position, while ‘birthday boy’ Hafiz Nor was running rings on the right flank.

They broke the deadlock in the 28th minute with their first chance of the game through Aliff.

Ridhuan sprinted his way towards the penalty box from the right before playing a cross into the path of Aliff, who emerged out of nowhere to simply tap the ball into an open net.

Woodlands were not keen in trailing at half-time and went in search for the equaliser.

Joey had his fingertips on Moon Soon Ho’s low finish, before Fadhil Noh latched onto a deep through-ball by Chang Jo Yoon to finish it straight to the custodian.

Things got worse for Salim Moin’s side in the second half as they were reduced to ten men after Jevtic received his marching orders after a second bookable offence.

Despite being a man down, the Rams were not keen in throwing in the towel, and continued their attempts in creating chances.

Moon could not keep himself balanced to have a clear shot at goal from eight yards out, before Atsushi Shimono’s curling free-kick from the left was cleared off the line.

Aliff could have doubled his and his team’s goal tally later on, but his shot from outside the 16-yard box sailed over the bar.

Chang had his shot saved by Joey before the Eagles doubled their lead in the 78th minute through Ridhuan.

Fabian Kwok executed a majestic 30-yard through ball from the middle of the pitch to find the former international, who had the final third all to himself before slotting the ball past a hapless Ahmadulhaq Che Omar.

Jorg Steienebrunner’s charges were not contented with the two-goal lead and went searching for more goals.

Ridhuan could have gotten his brace if not for his effort which was single-handedly parried away by Ahmadulhaq, before Leonel Felice failed to beat the custodian in an one-on-one situation.

With the win, Geylang are now only six points behind seventh placed Balestier Khalsa.