Written by: Nigel Chin

Geylang International coach Jorg Steinebrunner felt his side let two points slip in the draw against Balestier Khalsa on Friday evening.

The Eagles had gone up by a goal in the 12th minute, and hit the crossbar minutes later before allowing the Tigers to score two goals in two minutes.

Shah Hirul eventually secured the point with a wonder goal from 30 yards in the 30th minute, although Geylang had a number of opportunities thereafter to secure the three points.

Steinebrunner was certain that his side deserved more from the match, after putting in a superb performance.

“[It was] two points dropped,” said the German after the game. “You have to mention that between 1-0 and going down 2-1, we hit the crossbar. If Bruno had scored that, we would have been 2-0 up.

“In the first 20 minutes, defensively we looked good, and we played with some good pace up front, created good chances. If that second goal would have gone in then it’s what we would have deserved.

“But we went to sleep for a few minutes and conceded the second goal. We came back again, rightfully, and looking at the way the game unfolded, we are really unfortunate.”

WIth that draw, Geylang have not tasted victory in 10 straight league games, the last coming back at the start of May.

Steinebrunner however, believes that they will be able to end the run soon following improvements in their performances.

“If we continue playing like this, sooner or later, we will get a win to get out of the bottom of the table,” Steinebrunner stated.

“I think we had slight advantage in chances, and it’s even a better performance. It’s the second time we feel we have dropped two points following the draw against Warriors.”

On the other hand, Balestier coach Marko Kraljevic thought that this side missed some of their regulars against Geylang.

The Tigers had five players missing due to injuries or suspensions, and almost their entire bench were filled with players from their Prime League squad.

“Our squad is not big. We have a small squad and we struggled today missing a few players,” Kraljevic explained.

“We strugged with the pace, the passes, and we didn’t play as well as usual.

“Still, I think the draw is a fair result.”

The draw also meant that Balestier have once again failed to close the gap on league leaders Brunei DPMM, but Kraljevic says he will not be losing sleep over it.

“I’m not worried. At the beginning of the season, I didn’t have a target of winning the title set by the management,” said the Croatian.

“Suddenly, everything was moving in our way, but the last few games we have struggled with suspensions and injuries, and missing players is a little bit of problem.

“We’ll see how it goes, for now we are just focused on the next game.”