Written By: Kenneth Ho

Home United kept their AFC Cup hopes alive with a 2- 0 triumph over New Radiant SC in a Group E encounter on Wednesday evening at Jalan Besar Stadium.

Home midfield dynamo Lee Kwan Woo played a starring role in the win as he had a hand in both goals which Qiu Li and Bruno Castanheira scored.

Both team threw caution to the wind and started with attacking impetus as it was end-to-end stuff in the opening 15 minutes without any real threat on goal.

However Home begin to dominate the game as they enjoyed a giant slice of the possession and used it to carve out several opportunities.

In the 21st minute, Qiu had ample time to take a shot from distance but his scorcher whistled past the upright.

Yasir Hanapi had an attempt as well after beating Mohamed Rasheed to cut into the centre and have a go but his shot was comfortably dealt with by New Radiant goalkeeper Mohamed Irman.

Home then finally took the lead through bizarre fashion in the 27th minute.

Imran appeared to have comfortably caught hold of Lee’s corner but then he unexplainably proceeded to spill the ball in front of Qiu, leaving the striker with an easy task of tapping home from three yards out.

There was a chance for the home side to extend their advantage in the 32nd minute when Lee played a lovely chip over the top for Bruno, and the Japanese duly obliged with a tantalising cross to Fazrul Nawaz but the striker headed over from close range.

New Radiant nearly equalised just before the break when Umair Mohamed tried to curl one in from 20 yards but Home goalkeeper Shahril Jantan managed to parry the shot.

The visitors came close again in the 57th minute when Fasir Ali spotted Shahril off his line and tried to lash one in but it agonisingly trickled away from the far post.

The second goal which Home sought finally arrived just after the hour mark with Lee the architect once again as his dipping cross was superbly met by Bruno in midair as he hooked the ball into goal.

The South Korean could have gotten on the score sheet five minutes later when his set piece took a wicked deflection and was diverted towards goal. However a wrong-footed Imran managed to pull off a stupendous save by sticking out his foot to keep out the ball.

Credit to New Radiant, they never gave up and persisted in trying to force a comeback.

In the last ten minutes, Shahril was called upon to tip away Umair’s free kick while Hamza

Mohamed’s dangerous cut-back was stopped at the face of goal by Home defender Juma’at Jantan.

Their resilience nearly paid off when Ahmed Shafiu had a free header from seven yards out but he failed to find the target.

New Radiant’s miserable outing in front of goal endured right till full time came as Home went home with a clean sheet and three points.