By Song Sung Hai

A generally satisfied Patrick Vallee reflected after the match that it was a good thing to have organised the friendly game against the White Swans as they were never going to be easy opponents.

“My objective is to get the team ready for the league. This game demonstrates well the intensity of the league and my players showed the mentality that I like. The result is not very important to me. What’s more important is our first league game on the 24th,” Vallee told tpufc.org.

He also felt that though his boys were definitely on their way, they were not yet at one hundred percent.

Patrick added, “You can see some of my players are injured. Kamel Ramdani, Sazali Salleh and Zahid Ahmad will take a bit more time to recover and I need them ready for the new season. I want the whole team to be ready not for just the one opening game but for the long haul. When they recover, we will need to work more.”

Judging from the brilliant football exhibited by the Jaguars against an equally impressive Albirex Niigata (s) FC side, one can only shiver in excitement at the potential strength of this current Tanjong Pagar squad. Once Patrick Vallee polishes them up into the complete article, that is.