Written by: Phoon Jia Hui
While Home United coach Lee Lim Saeng was disappointed his side failure to hold onto their lead in their 2-2 draw against Warriors FC, he refused to pin any blame on his players and was proud of their effort.
The South Korean also singled out Fazli Ayob and Fazrul Nawaz who scored a goal apiece for praise.
“We were down 1-0 and then we converted the game and made it 2-1. Unfortunately, we conceded the last minute goal that’s part of football,” the Home coach said.
“The players tried their best and I want to thank them. We are not finished for this season yet, that’s why I’m doing my best to work with my players.
“Fazli and Fazrul, they played well and improved a lot. I hope they will keep it up and I hope to see them play for the Singapore national team again one day.”
Lee however believed their failure to retain possession eventually resulted in the equaliser but he was keen to move on.
“I think after the scored the second goal we did not keep the ball thats why we gave our opponents [a chance] to attack,” he assessed.
“Sometimes it is tough to play against good side and i understand my players showed their desire but unfortunately we conceded a late goal but i dont want to blame my players. We will now have to prepare for next game against Courts Young Lions [on Thursday].”
His opposite number Alex Weaver felt that his team deserved no less than a point and was pleased with what he saw from his charges especially after falling behind at the start of the second-half.
“Well we have to [settle for one point] but of course we wanted the three points and i thought we could have got them [Home] after a good start,” he admitted.
“I was confident we would kick on and go on from there. Home United played well in the first-half but i thought we certainly controlled things in the first ten minutes of the second and i thought we pretty much deserved to get all the three points considering the chances we had.
“We did very well in keeping our composure towards the end, something we worked on in training. They recycled the ball very well. We didn’t panic, which was the key thing in the last ten minutes in that situation.
“We deserved a lot of credit for actually coming back and taking control of the game. We kept things simple and straightforward, got the ball into areas of the field we needed to and we got a little bit of reward but was disappointed to concede the two goals.”
Warriors will now face defending champions Tampines Rovers in a must-win clash at Jalan Besar Stadium on Friday and Weaver was excited by the prospect of facing them next.
“We needed something [from today], for sure. I think we created enough to try possibly win the game. We are excited now to go on and face Tampines. We will put them under pressure like we try and do and see what we get,” he said.