Written by: Koh Yizhe

Coach Aidil Sharin made it a perfect start to his Home United reign with a comfortable 3-0 win at home over the Warriors to kick-off the third round of the Great-Eastern Yeo’s S.League.

A double from the league top scorer Ken Ilso plus a Song Uiyoung goal sandwiched in-between gave the Protectors the victory as they were dominant from start to finish. With the result, the Protectors are now third in the table on 25 points, three more than Brunei DPMM, who play league leaders Albirex Niigata (S) on Friday. For the Warriors, they remained in seventh position on 18 points.

Home dominated the early proceedings with the first chance falling to Khairul Nizam who found himself with space down the middle as the defence backed off in the seventh minute. However, his shot went wide.

 

Captain Juma’at Jantan, who was a threat all night down the right flank, delivered a couple of dangerous crosses as the home side looked the more likely team to break the deadlock.

The usually prolific Jonathan Behe was unable to bail the visitors out as he missed two glorious chances in the first half to give the Warriors the lead. First, he was denied by the fingertips of Hyrulnizam in the 15th minute after making his way into the penalty area on the left. He then shot straight at the defender with the goal gaping after Hafiz Nor had slipped the ball to him with the keeper beaten.

 

At the other end, his counterpart, Ilso, impressed as he was a thorn in the side of the Warriors’ defence throughout the match. He nearly gave his side the lead in the 36th minute when he was sent through on goal. However, his shot was saved by the alert Yazid Yasin who sprinted off his line to prevent a goal.

He would not be denied three minutes later, though, as he collected the ball in the area, took a couple of touches to create space for himself before slotting home to give Home United the lead. Azhar Sairudin almost doubled the lead but his efforts from point-blank range forced a double save from the Warriors defence.

 

Home continued their onslaught on the Warriors’ goal in the second half with Nizam stinging the palms of Yazid early on before Uiyoung doubled his team’s lead. The Warriors defence was slow to recover as Shamil Sharif just kept the ball in to cut back for the unmarked Korean to finish from close range.

Shaiful Esah nearly pulled one back for the visitors with a freekick that needed the attention of Hyrulnizam, but other than that effort, the Home goal was largely unthreatened. Ilso rounded up the scoring with time winding down to make a perfect first day at the office for coach Aidil. Song turned provider for this one as he flashed the ball across goal for the Dane to tap in.

 

Home United coach Aidil Sharin: “I am very happy with the performance. The boys are putting lots of effort and we can see that from the result. This is just the start and I hope they can play even better than this. Three points is important for a new coach like me, but this is just the beginning and there is still a lot of work to be done.

Our goal for the season is to collect as many points as possible and take things one game at a time to see where we finish at the end of the season.”

 

Warriors coach Razif Onn: “We did not play well today. In the first half, we could not use the ball in the attacking third and that translated to the defence. Home United kept coming from the flank and we could not defend it then that was it. It was unfortunate to have conceded these three goals.

With five straight defeats (in all competitions), it is not easy to get moral up again.”

Home United: Hyrulnizam Juma’at (GK), Song Uiyoung, Juma’at Jantan (C), Abdil Qaiyyim, Azhar Sairudin (Zulfahmi Arfin 78’), Ken Ilso, Sirina Camara, Shamil Sharif (Amiruldin Asraf 87’), Shahrin Saberin, Khairul Nizam (Aquhari Abdullah 71’), Syahiran Miswan

Warriors: Yazid Yasin (GK), Zulfadli Zainal (C), Ismail Yunos, Kento Fukuda, Madhu Mohana, Shaiful Esah, Nikola Rak, Hafiz Nor (Andy Ahmad 71’), Ridhuan Muhamad, Hafiz Osman, Jonathan Behe