Written by: Phoon Jia Hui

After witnessing his side suffer a 3-0 reverse at the hands of Balestier Khalsa at Queenstown Stadium on Wednesday evening, Tanjong Pagar coach Patrick Vallee was clearly downcast with the result which he felt was a true reflection of their performance.

“I was thinking to myself throughout the whole game that tonight we got what we deserved,” he said.

“It’s not the style of Balestier’s play, but it’s about Tanjong Pagar. We didn’t show up tonight and at the end of the day we got zero points.”

Still feeling the disappointment, the French coach was however eager to put this result behind him and focus on helping his charges regroup for their next league clash against Woodlands Wellington on Saturday.

“It’s not acceptable to see something sometimes but that’s part of football,” Vallee lamented.

“You can win games but we will always stay humble and when you lose you must think positive for next game. What’s most important now is we focus on our next game on Saturday and forget about this game.”

In contrast, Balestier coach Marko Kraljevic was all smiles after the match as he lavished praise on his defence.

“I am very impressed but I don’t want to talk about Park too much. He is our main man but our defence played well well and had a good game,” he explained.

“We kept a clean sheet today, and conceded only one goal in our last two games. We caught Zerka offside many times today and the communication was great.

“For example, Nurullah (Hussein) played an excellent game and I’m confident he can go to the next level.”

Fresh from their 3-1 triumph over Warriors FC in the RHB Singapore Cup last week, Kraljevic also believed the aforementioned result did his side a world of good in terms of confidence to propel them to victory against the Jaguars.

“When you beat Warriors, everyone is up in terms of morale then you think you can beat anyone. You will express yourself more and you are not scared to lose,” he said.