Written by: Muhammad Yazid

Home United’s coach Lee Lim Saeng was a pleased man as his team progressed to the StarHub League Cup 2014 quarter-finals following a 2-0 victory over Singapore Recreation Club, especially since their opponents gave them a run for their money and made them work for the win.

“I never expected an easy game and SRC gave us a good fight,” a relieved-looking Lee said at the post-match conference. “Due respects to them because they worked very hard and did cause us a couple of problems.

“I credit my players for their determination; they tried their best and earned a good result. We did well in trying to connect with the ball.”

The former South Korean international then asserted that he was happy his players had adapted well to his tactical approach, and allowed them now to have adequate recovery before their next match.

“We needed to share the energy among the team and I believe we saved energy tonight; that was my main game plan” he revealed.

“Thankfully that did help as there were no injuries during the game. There are only very few rest days so it is important to save energy for the next game which is the quarter-finals. I hope my players can recover fast.”

Lee was also happy that the players he threw in did not disappoint him, especially Fazli Ayob, who scored his first goal for the club.

“I am happy to see Fazli score, he had a very good game,” he praised. “Everyone in the team must have a healthy competition and that is evident in training sessions.”

Despite the clean sheet and the victory, the gaffer believed that there are still areas of improvements.

“We gave them chances in the first half which was cause by avoidable mistakes,” Lee said.

“We need to rectify and fix it before the next game because we were losing concentration in defence.”

SRC’s team manager, S.Mogan had mixed feelings after the final whistle as he felt that his side could have taken away more than just a commendable scoreline from the game.

“Our boys played very well, considering the fact that we are an amateur team from the National Football League (NFL) playing a professional top team from the S.League,” he praised.

“2-0 is a good and reputable scoreline and I am happy that we managed to hold them for almost the whole first half.

“However, we should have converted the two chances we had in the first half before Home scored.

“If we had taken the lead, it would have been a different story. Maybe we would have lost 2-1, but that one goal does matter.”