Written by: Zack Rahim
Steve Kean admitted his Brunei DPMM project was still a work in progress despite the Bruneian club currently topping the Great Eastern-Yeo’s S-League.
The Scotsman has engineered two wins in a row in his debut season with DPMM, with last night’s 2-0 win over Warriors FC coming after their 1-0 victory against Albirex Niigata (S) FC in last week’s season opener.
Except for goalkeeper Wardun Yussof who returned from suspension, Kean fielded largely the same side that started against Albirex – the most notable absentee being fan favourite Shahrazen Said, who along with midfielder Azwan Salleh has not been in the starting eleven yet.
Kean had announced during the Albirex post-match press conference that DPMM aimed to win the league and cup double. But speaking to the media last night, the former Blackburn Rovers tactician admitted his player still needed time to gel.
“The players are still getting to know each other and there is no better way to do that than playing more minutes,” insisted Kean.
“But we’ve got an exceptional bench and players who are ready to step up.
“I think the second half was the best of the four halves we’ve played this season.
“At half-time I told them they had to trust each other a little more with the ball. Courage doesn’t always mean headers or tackles, it is also passing the ball to your teammate and trusting him.
“In the heat of the game they were just hitting the ball up the pitch – and that’s not something we do during training,” he added.
Despite hardly troubling DPMM FC goalkeeper Wardun Yussof, Warriors coach Alex Weaver admitted his disappointment at losing the game, and felt that his side were undone by Rodrigo Tosi’s opener which dipped in past the Singapore custodian in the 49th minute.
“I’m extremely disappointed we lost the game,” said Weaver.
“We were creating chances, it’s just that we didn’t get people at the end of them.
“We started the second half well but they scored an early goal – and it needed to have been something special to beat Hassan (Warriors goalkeeper Hassan Sunny),” Weaver added.