Written by: Nigel Chin

Jamil Ali’s first goal of the season was enough to help Tampines Rovers dispatch Hougang United 1-0 on Saturday evening at the Jurong West Stadium.

The result meant that the Stags finally moved into third in the S.League standings, while the Cheetahs remained in eighth behind Courts Young Lions.

Chances were far and few in between in the match, as both sides struggled to get in their rhythm.

It took almost 18 minutes for the game to see its first chance, which came from the hosts.

A brilliant through pass from Jamil sent Ridhuan Muhamad through, but he was denied by Hougang goalkeeper Ridhuan Barudin, who came off his line early to stop the winger.

From the resulting corner, Roberto Alviz picked out Ismail Yunos, who headed over from point-blank range.

Jamil had a superb opportunity to open the scoring in the 34th minute after Rodrigo Tosi found him unmarked inside the box, but the veteran scuffed his shot wide instead.

Ten minutes later, Tosi set up Alviz with a brilliant lay-off, only for the midfielder to fire high and wide after advancing into the box.

But Tampines finally opened the scoring on the stroke of half-time.

Firdaus Idros was allowed to run behind the Hougang defence after Kunihiro Yamashita missed his headed clearance, and the winger squared it for the unmarked Jamil for a simple tap-in after drawing Ridhuan Barudin’s attention.

The hosts could have doubled the lead in the 56th minute, but Jamil missed Ridhuan Muhamad’s cutback totally, before Alviz smashed his shot straight into Ridhuan Barudin from the rebound.

Down the other end seconds later, Nurhilmi Jasni picked out Vuk Sotirovic with a decent cross, but the striker headed over wastefully.

Ridhuan Barudin was forced into action once more, this time to prevent Tosi from adding onto the scoreline in the 65th minute.

As the clock ticked on, Tampines started to go on the defensive more, and Hougang were unable to carve open the tight-knitted backline.

Shaiful Esah had a great chance to kill off the game in injury-time, yet he somehow fired over from close range.

Tampines Rovers: Rodrigo Pacheco (GK), Ismadi Mukhtar (C), Jufri Taha, Ridhuan Muhamad (Aqhari Abdullah 74’), Shaiful Esah, Firdaus Idros (Isa Halim 61’), Rodrigo Tosi, Ismail Yunos, Jamil Ali, (Fabian Kwok 68’) Roberto Alviz, Naeem Rahimi

Hougang United: Ridhuan Barudin (GK), Delwinder Singh, Kunihiro Yamashita, Atsushi Shimono, Carlos Delgado (Taufiq Ghani 62’), Diego Gama, Vuk Sotirovic, Ruzaini Zainal, Fazli Jaffar (Fareez Farhan 62’), Faiz Salleh, Nurhilmi Jasni (C)