Written By: Kenneth Ho

It took a a game before the end of the season, but Hougang United finally managed to secure seventh spot in the Great Eastern Yeo’s S.League, to match their previous 2011’s season highest finish ever in the league.

Hougang team manager Nicholas Low admitted that it took a long time coming, especially since the team had taken a huge lead over nearest rivals Geylang International, going into the final five games.

Nonetheless, he was pleased that the Cheetahs finally did so in style after a 4-0 win over Geylang on Tuesday evening.

“I guess the word finally cannot come soon enough,” Low shared.

“I think the boys deserved every accolade that you can possibly bestow, obviously when we win we win well, and with the clean sheet, so I feel that’s the cherry on top, I think they were all in it to win it today, so credit to them they deserve it today.”

While the Cheetahs did earn an emphatic victory, they did not manage to breakdown a resolute Eagles side only until the 40th minute, when Kento Fukuda turned in an own goal. Even then, Hougang’s staffs were still nervous about the result.

“You can say it took an own goal, but you can’t say we didn’t pressure them to concede that, you know it didn’t happen out of mid-air,” Low added.

“So with the first half, I wouldn’t say I was surprised; I was at the edge of my edge at 1-0, then 2-0 I was sliding in, 3-0 a bit more, and with only one minute left to go we were 4-0 up then I totally relaxed.”

Geylang coach Jorg Steinebrunner was visibly disappointed about the result as he labelled it one of the worst results he has suffered as coach of the team.

However, he was keen to move on from the defeat and instead gave Hougang credit for the impressive victory.

“Very simply, congratulate to Hougang, we didn’t turn up, we had probably one of the worst games since I’m in Geylang,” Steinebrunner said.