Written by: Zack Rahim

Steve Kean praised DPMM FC’s ruthlessness in front of goal after they ripped the Young Lions apart 6-1 in their Great Eastern Yeo’s S.League match on Sunday, saying their substantial goal difference could come in handy at the end of the season.

The club moved to second with their fourth win from six games, and have the best goal difference in the league after scoring 14 goals and letting in a league low of four.

And with titleholders Tampines Rovers – who also have 14 goals to their name – losing their first game of the season on Saturday when they went down 4-2 to Hougang United, DPMM coach Kean hoped their fiercest title rivals will continue to falter as a result of their AFC Cup campaign.

“I wasn’t expecting so many goals,” said Kean after he saw his team record the largest margin of victory in this season’s competition so far.

“What’s good about today is the goal difference, and you never know when that will be important.

“Tampines are playing in the AFC Cup and if they travel I hope they will get tired and drop points,” said Kean, referring to the Stags’ 5-2 victory over Pune FC on Tuesday.

DPMM found themselves trailing due to a 23rd minute goal from Young Lions’ Sherif El-Masri but came back to take a 2-1 advantage heading into the breather at the Hassanal Bolkiah National Stadium in Brunei.

Rodrigo Tosi and Roy O’Donovan ended the game with braces while Roberto Alviz and Azwan Ali Rahman also got on the scoresheet.

Kean felt that his half-time team talk and a chance of tactics led to the team’s resounding win, though he refused to blame Tosi and O’Donovan for missing chances to grab hat-tricks.

“The main thing is we took our chances,” insisted Kean.

“I told them at half-time that when you fall behind it’s about how you react.

“The goal was a deflection and it’s easy to feel sorry for yourself and be nervous, but I told them that sometimes courage means wanting to get on the ball.

“In the second half I told the players to get the ball and put crosses into the box because I felt we were causing the Young Lions problems with that,” added the Scotsman.

Aide Iskandar, though, was understandably less pleased with his team’s performance which he put down to inexperience.

“We have a lot of young players and they lacked concentration tonight,” admitted the Young Lions coach.

“They couldn’t handle the pressure and I hope they can learn from this.”