By Song Sung Hai

A resurgent Jaguars side, now unbeaten in four games and with our third consecutive victory, went wild with bloodlust at Pasir Gudang Stadium and romped home with all three points, crushing Harimau Muda B with an impressive 5-0 scoreline.

A third goal in three consecutive games for hitman Monsef Zerka, one apiece by Asraf Rashid and Hafiz Osman followed by a brace from Sebastien Etiemble, crushed the wills of the Young Tigers as they collapsed to their second five-nil thrashing this season.

This feat was by no means ordinary up against a side which beat Hougang United at their Hougang Stadium fortress just two weeks ago and are more than able to hold their own on their day but the night belonged to the Jaguars, who controlled the game from the very first touch of the ball and showed superior class and experience which belied the Jaguars’ standing on the table.

Perhaps, things could have been different had the Young Tigers’ Afiq Fazil and Nurshamil Abd Ghani both not have their attempts denied by the same post in the 21st minute. Afiq first slammed his shot into the right post and a mere minute later, Nurshamil headed the ball onto the exact same spot and the Jaguars escaped unscathed from that bizarre moment.

Aurelien Herrison was also responsible for frustrating the young Malaysian lads with several point blank saves throughout the game and is one reason the Jaguars got a second consecutive clean sheet. Kamel Ramdani was tasked to partner Sazali ‘SuperSaz’ Salleh in the centre and the two were highly instrumental in breaking down the Malaysian youngsters’ creative engine. Both showed that experience could still trump youth at any given time, if employed properly.

One Jaguar impressed from the start and it was none other than Firdaus Idros, who got the first shot of the match in the 2nd minute but angled his kick wide with only the keeper to beat. Determined, it took only ten minutes for Firdaus to conjure the opening goal of the match.

Latching onto an inch-perfect Kamel Ramdani through-ball, Firdaus rounded the keeper and selflessly laid the ball for an unmarked Asraf Rashid to prod the ball home. He was also instrumental in creating the second goal when his perfectly zeroed cross found Asraf once again in the 31st minute. This time, Asraf Rashid turned provider as he rolled the ball across the box for Sebastien Etiemble to smash into the goal.

The third goal came from a swift counterattack which totally floored the Harimau Muda defenders. Spotting a gap in defence and a lurking Monsef Zerka poised to exploit, Sebastien Etiemble sent in the sweetest diabetes inducing through ball of the match that Monsef simply could not resist.

The very moment Monsef got his foot to the ball, a sudden burst of pace left his marker eating dust in his wake and got him into a one on one with the Harimau Muda custodian. His first shot was surprisingly palmed away by the goalie but only back at Zerka and the former Ligue 1 striker made no mistake the second time round, slotting the ball into the back of the net from an acute angle to end the half at 3-0 for the Jaguars.

The Harimau Muda players knew that a way back into the game was still a realistic possibility and they made their intentions known straight off the second-half whistle.

Sebastien Etiemble though snuffed out that possibility cold heartedly with his second assist of the game. Sebastien’s perfectly curled in corner-kick in the 62nd minute went straight to Hafiz Osman in the box and Hafiz’s sharp header down into goal past the Malaysian custodian and defenders on the line confirmed the quality on display.

That goal snapped the fighting spirit of the Harimau Muda lads and it was not much of a surprise when merely two minutes later, Asraf Rashid assisted Sebastien for a second time for the French wizard to grab his brace.

Asraf had spotted Sebastien in the box and opted to pass again instead of shooting. Sebastien repaid Asraf’s faith in him by quickly side-stepping his marker to send a venomous grounder into the left-bottom corner of goal past the Harimau Muda custodian who, it must also be mentioned, was in a good position to cover all his angles but had no chance against that shot.

The pairing of Ahmad Latiff and Hafiz Osman at the back once again leaked no goals and the two senior Jaguars were never troubled much by their much younger opponents. Hanafi Salleh was once again running on two and a half lungs to provide superb cover on the right and made several crucial interceptions as well along with the reliable Ruzaini Zainal.

All in all, it can be said that it was a night when everything went right for the Jaguars and the scoreline could indeed have been bigger had things gone more right. As it stands, the Jaguars now find ourselves two points behind Geylang International but can no longer go below 8th position as the Young Lions are four points behind and will not overtake no matter what.

It has been a fruitful half round for the team with 10 points collected from four games and the quality of the team shining through ever so brightly, signalling that they are in the wrong half of the table.

Head Coach Patrick Vallée took immense pleasure in the big win and with the way the team played.

He added, “It’s a very good end of season for Tanjong Pagar. Tonight everything went through for us, the players played very good, especially offensively and a lot of players scored tonight.”

Patrick also expressed satisfaction that the team did not concede any goals, citing that “even if we score five goals, for me getting the cleansheet is also very important.”

“Achieving that gave me extra pleasure,” he continued. “Now we will play and enjoy the last game, finish the season as best as we can and look forward to next season.”