Written by: Phoon Jia Hui

Tampines Rovers progressed to the semi-finals of the RHB Singapore Cup after they beat last year’s finalists Tanjong Pagar United with an aggregate score of 8-3 at Queenstown Stadium on Tuesday evening.

Speaking after the game, Tampines assistant coach Satria Mad was pleased with his team who managed to score eight goals over both legs.

“If you realise, we are now scoring more in the past two games. In the attacking department we are quite alright and improving,” he said.

“To score four goals [in both matches] is not easy and to see them scoring goals is a good sign that we are going forward.

“I have to give credit to the opponents, even with two men down they were still attacking and trying to score.”

Despite the victory, he still felt his team could have done better in certain aspects.

“So now we have to improve on the defence because whenever we are one goal up we tend to relax and we need to work on that,” he explained. “We need to know what to do when we have a numerical advantage in future.”

Matthew Abraham slotted in at left-back in place of the suspended Jufri Taha and Satria was full of praise for the 25-year-old.

Explaining the decision to hand the former Warriors FC man a start, Satria said: “In pre-season, we put him on the left-side and he played very well. To help him get match fitness, he played for the Prime League squad and today he came in for Jufri in a direct swap.

“I thought he did very well in his first start. Even with Rafi barking instructions to him from the sidelines, I still thought he played very well.”

On the other hand, Tanjong Pagar coach Patrick Vallee was encouraged with the effort from his charges over the two legs and refused to dwell on the result.

“I’m happy with how my team managed this two legs against Tampines, because Tampines are one of the strongest teams in the S.League,” expressed the Frenchman.

“I like the team spirit and sometimes football is like that. I’m not upset or disappointed because i thought we did very well, especially in the first-half where we had a plan and the players followed it.

“Everybody must also understand my players tried their best and I don’t want to blame them.”