Written by: Khalis Rifhan

It was a stark contrast of emotions in two camps after Warriors FC’s 3-0 win over Harimau Muda in the Great Eastern Yeo’s S.League encounter at Choa Chu Kang Stadium on Wednesday evening.

Harimau coach Razip Ismail was livid with what he perceived as unfair treatment towards his team, while his counterpart Warriors coach Alex Weaver was in a buoyant mood after witnessing a brilliant performance from his players.

The Malaysians’ technical team was disgruntled with the match officials after seeing two of their players, goalkeeper Ramdhan Hamid and captain Ashmawi Yakin sent off in the dying minutes of the match.

While it was clear that Ramdhan made a reckless challenge on Hafiz Rahim, Razip was still perplexed with referee Mohd Irwan’s decision to flash the red card at his custodian.

“Until the first goal, we played well. For the second goal, he called my player, and he allowed them (Warriors) to continue play. I do not know how he gave my goalkeeper a red card,” said a visibly upset Razip, who was not in the mood to elaborate on his team’s performance.

While Razip and his team were still coming to terms with the result, Weaver was full of smiles as he debriefed his players and fielded the post-match interview.

“They showed exactly how they felt after the Brunei (DPMM) game and wanted to come back and they have responded really well and they deserve lots of credits,” said Weaver of his team’s effort and determination in the match.

While the final score favoured Weaver, he had to endure a frustrating first half as his side came close to scoring, but were denied by the woodwork on three occasions.

“You want to see at least one of those going in before half-time. But we been saying to the players to be patient and keep doing what we been doing and focus on what we have worked on in training. It will come and eventually it did,” added the former Hougang United coach.

Weaver also gave special mention to his goalkeeper Hassan Sunny: “Hassan was very commanding and he put Harimau on the backfoot with lots of his distributions. We have a good team spirit and they thoroughly deserved that tonight.”