Written by: Kenneth Ho

Tampines Rovers coach Salim Moin won his first ever silverware as a coach after his team lifted the Great Eastern Charity Shield in a 1-0 clash with Home United at the Jalan Besar Stadium on Friday evening.

The win was the Stags’ fourth successive Charity Shield triumph, and also gave the reigning league champions three points as the game doubled up as the official opening S.League fixture.

At the press conference, Salim expressed his happiness at how his team adhered to his instructions to secure the win despite being outplayed at times by Home United and insisted he had faith his boys would pull through the fixture.

“I was not afraid to get beaten because these boys have been playing in the Cup final for the past three seasons so they know how the atmosphere would be,” Salim said.

“It was a tough game for us because you saw the first half we didn’t play that well,” Tampines Rovers forward Aleksandar Duric agreed, “It is not easy to play against a team which finished second last year and Home United is always tough play.”

With the points and trophy in the bag, Salim was keen to downplay the victory and stressed that his team was focused on their next opponents.

“Of course this win is a very happy moment to everybody and we will look forward to our next opponent,” Salim shared.

“The next concentration is the AFC Cup, that is very close that would be my next target and the team knows that.”

Despite concerns about the insipid offensive showing by the Stags, Duric stated his belief his team would improve with each game.

“We changed in the second half and we came out much stronger. We showed in the first half that we are a new team and we need some time to gel together,” Duric added.

“We are still trying to find the best formation because we have a lot of attacking players and it is very difficult to decide which formation we will play.“

Salim agreed with his striker’s assessment and hinted that midfielder Luis Costa would be a huge factor in the Stags’ attacking performance this season.

“With another couple of matches Closa would be a very interesting player to see because he is very creative and he is giving the team a lot of penetrating passing,” Salim said.

“It (the win) is very important to all the team. From there we will see how we can improve things.”