Written by: Muhammad Yazid

Brunei DPMM cantered to a comfortable 4-1 victory over Harimau Muda in a Great Eastern Yeo’s S.League match at the Pasir Gudang Stadium on Sunday night.

In the contest between two teams from opposite ends of the league table, Awangku Fakharrazi claimed a brace while strike partners Rodrigo Tosi and Roy O’Donovan bagged a goal each to send DPMM five points clear at the top of the table.

Harimau did have something to go home with as substitute Akhir Bahari pulled one goal back for them.

It was arguably a one-sided game as the visitors were constantly on the front foot and rarely took their feet of the gas pedal.

Harimau on the other hand were trying their best to defend tight but the attacking prowess of Tosi and Donovan was unstoppable.

As early as the first minute, Harimau almost took the lead when Shahrul Igwan received a long ball by Qayyum Marjoni before blasting his finish from a tight angle over the cross bar.

The deadlock was broken in the tenth minute, after two consecutive Azwan Saleh’s corners got cleared away by the Malaysian defence.

The defender’s third corner resulted in a goal as Rosmin Kamis got to the end of it before lifting the ball into the path of Awangku, who saw his slightly deflected finish hit the bottom corner of the net.

Just four minutes later, Abdullah Suleiman brought Donovan down in the 18-yard area and Tosi coolly converted the penalty to double the lead for his side.

The hosts should have pulled a goal back but Syawal Nordin failed to get a clean strike of the ball as he saw his close-range finish whizz past the post.

In the half-hour mark, Azwan Ali had a glorious opportunity to extend the lead if not for his one-on-one effort to roll wide off the post, before Donovan cleverly beat the offside trap to see his finish palmed away by Ilham Amirullah.

DPMM could not have kick-started the second half better as Awangku made it number three for his side by completing a brace for himself three minutes after the restart.

Awangku’s initial effort was saved by Ilham but the custodian could do nothing about the winger’s rebounding header, which found its way into the back of the net.

It was no way back for Harimau as the Brunieans made it four in the 58th minute through Donovan, who latched onto a pin-point through ball from Roberto Alviz before teasing the defence and finishing it past the hapless custodian.

Steve Kean’s side were on top gear almost the whole of the second half as Donovan himself  had two back-to-back efforts being denied by Ilham.

The Young Tigers did claim a consolation goal in the 73rd minute when two substitutes, Asri Mardzuki and Akhir combined to create a goal, as the latter headed home the former’s cross from the left.

However, that was too little too late as DPMM are currently enjoying the accolade of scoring the most number of goals against a particular team, after their 5-0 victory earlier this season.

To make things worse for Harimau, substitute Nurshamil Ghani got sent off for a second bookable offence, as they fail to leapfrog Courts Young Lions to take off from the root of the table.