Written by: Muhammad Yazid

It was goals galore at Clementi Stadium on Monday evening as Tampines Rovers were taught a tough lesson by Singapore Cubs after going down 4-2 to the visitors in the Great Eastern Yeo’s Prime League fixture.

Hazim Faiz was the hat-trick hero as he guided his team to the well-deserved victory, before R. Aaravin bagged a goal for himself too.

The Cubs were on their toes right from the first whistle and drew first blood in the 16th minute.

Aaravin conjured some piece of fancy footwork on the right side before releasing a low cross to Hazim, and the latter made a speedy run towards the ball to tap it beyond Tampines Rovers goalkeeper Rosyam Rosli.

The development side doubled their lead not long after when Tampines defender Afiq Muthalib failed to clear Aaravin’s cross to safety and Hazim capitalised on it by slotting the ball past Rosyam in the 28th minute.

Tampines did work hard to reduce the deficit and got rewarded three minutes before the interval through skipper Cameron Bell.

Jeffrey Lightfoot made a silly mistake by choosing to pass to his defensive partner Shahrin Saberin when the latter was surrounded by a sea of yellow men in a very vulnerable area, and Taufik Suparno managed to win the ball and lay it towards Cameron to put the ball into the back of an open net.

Hazim’s hat-trick was then completed eight minutes after the restart when the Cubs scored two goals in two minutes.

After a swift build-up play from midfield, the 19-year-old was only left with the keeper to beat following Izzat Hamzah’s pass, and Hazim made no mistake from close range.

Just a minute later, Aaravin made it four as he had all the time in the world to blast a grounder past the hapless Rosyam.

The three-goal margin did not dampen the spirits of the Stags as they still pushed for a goal.

Their persistence managed to pay off when Afiq Udin saw his deflected shot finding the corner of the net in the 56th minute.

The rest of the game produced no more goals but Singapore Cubs coach Slobodan Pavkovic believed that there could have been more goals.

“It was a positive game but we could have score more goals with the amount of chances we created throughout the game. We just did not score enough goals,“ he said.

“Most importantly, it is the educational process together with the improvement and development of the team which has been going well.”

His counterpart Satria Mad admitted that the Cubs deserved their win as Tampines were second-best throughout the game.

“We did play well but we conceded through silly goals. Credits to the Cubs, they deserved the win,“ Satria said.

“However, I am proud of my boys because they didn’t choose to rest at the back but still went forward searching for goals.

“Our opponents were very superior in speed and that gave them the victory,” Satria concluded.