Written by: Kenneth Ho

Geylang International new coach Jorg Steinebrunner was happy with what he saw from his side in their 1-0 victory over Courts Young Lions on Thursday evening.

The German was on the bench for his first match after he took over the reins at Geylang from Vedhamuthu Kanan who was demoted and placed in charge of Geylang’s Prime League side

The Eagles ran out victors after Young Lions defender Sheikh Abdul Hadi headed the ball past his own goalkeeper and Steinebrunner was grateful towards his players for end his side’s three-game losing streak.

“Credit to the boys, I have to say thank you cause everyone put a lot of effort in and showed a lot of determination and a lot of spirit. Players were working for each other, covering for each other,” Steinebrunner said.

“The last three games were negative; we conceded nine goals and scored two goals so it was a very big step forward.”

However, Steinebrunner emphasised that the season has only just begun and that his side needed to maintain giving their all in the games to come.

“It is very encouraging, but there is still a long way to go,” he stressed. “There is the win but there is also things that we need to do better so that’s what we are going to do in the coming weeks.

“When the boys see that you put in the effort and commitment then you are going to achieve things so that is very important.

“The target is to get performances like today. If at the end of the day everyone puts 100%, if you win then it’s great but if you draw or lose, I mean you can’t ask for more because that is the maximum everyone can get.”

Steinebrunner’s counterpart, Young Lions coach Aide Iskandar, rued his side’s lame performance in front of goal, despite having numerous chances to score in the game.

“We were let down by our poor finishing. We did okay in terms of performance but in terms of finishing, the chances we created we could have done better,” Aide lamented.

“For me, if you don’t put the ball in the net you don’t win or draw games.

“They need to learn, sometimes you need a little bit more focus with the finishing and I think today we were let down by that.”

While the visitors suffered a dismissal of Jordan Webb in the last minutes of the game, Aide refused to use their numerical disadvantage as an excuse and instead praised his opponents for defending well against the Young Lions.

“I am not sure with what happened with the red card, but we tried our best even in the last minute we did not give up,” he said.

“But we have to give credit to Geylang, they defended really well and in the end we were let down by poor finishing.“