Written by: Phoon Jia Hui

Warriors FC coach Alex Weaver lauded his players for their efforts after they clinched the 2014 Great Eastern Yeo’s S.League title on the final day of the season.

The Warriors did so at the expense of Brunei DPMM, who fell short at the last hurdle after a 2-1 defeat at the hands of Tampines Rovers.

The championship win was one to savour for Warriors coach Alex Weaver who is in his first full season in charge of the club, as he hailed his team’s commitment throughout the season.

“It feels great now, I’m delighted for those players and the club. It’s just a very good night and I think they really deserve what they have gotten tonight,” the 37-year-old said after the match.

“They’ve dealt with the pressure exceptionally well, their focus and attention on the things we’ve been working on in training is exceptional and congratulations to them, they deserved it.”

“I’m delighted for Daniel Bennett, our captain who’s been fantastic – very good leader in his own way as well as every single player in the squad. They’ve really played their part, even players who have not played that many games, the training and meetings we had, the focus has been fantastic and I’m delighted for the fans as well, it’s been a long time coming.”

With the season now done and dusted, Weaver added that he will now take a short break before returning to work next week as they begin preparations for 2015.

“I’m going to take the weekend off and then get back and sort out players’ contracts next week and hopefully get those confirmed and then literally spend a lot of time thinking about next year and the AFC Champions League,” he shared.

“I’m thinking of our future next year, we got to start planning our pre-season and we probably have to start earlier next year so we have to start thinking about periodising our training so that’s going to take some time.

“We want to strengthen the squad as much as we can. Obviously every club in the S.League has budgets so we have to be intelligent about that and do it carefully. But we want to keep the majority of the squad together, for consistency and also because they are good players.”

When asked if he would ring up Tampines coach Rafi to say a word of thanks for the favour, Weaver replied: “I’m going to have to give Rafi and the club a call, but that’s just credit to Tampines and it reflects what they have been to the S.League for the last few years.

“We set a little target for ourselves at the start of the season and we focused a lot on what Tampines have done recently we use them as a benchmark and rightly so, because they have been a credit to the S.League over the last few years. They have done well for themselves, they’ve gained a lot of pride in that performance but I expect that from Rafi and Tampines.”