BY Song Sung Hai

Like a young lad pining for his lost love, a nerve-wracked Jaguars side took to the field at Jalan Besar Stadium longing for the warm embrace of Lady Luck who had shied away for the past three games.

Fears turned to cheers when she made a dramatic return to help the Jaguars pounce back from an Amy Recha opener to eventually win by three goals to two and Monsef Zerka was her ‘Chosen One’.

An uncharacteristically disarrayed passing and positioning by the Jaguars helped the Young Lions dominate early in the game. It took the Young Lions only two minutes to register their first shot at goal.

Iqbal Hussain sped away from his markers and into the box but his left-footed curler gained enough altitude to soar past the bar.
Mere minutes later, Sheikh Abdul Hadi saw his header off a corner chested away by Sebastien Etiemble on the line and into the grateful palms of Aurelien.

The Young Lions were not to be denied for long and the game was 19 minutes old when Sherif El-Masri broke through down the left flank in speed before attempting an adventurous shot from an angle.

Aurelien was always tracking the ball and responded well but his block sent the ball rolling into the path of an onrushing Amy Recha who could not believe his luck, especially with Hanafi Salleh failing to notice him, and he wasted no time in sending the ball back towards goal. Aurelien could only get his hand to the ball after it had crossed the line and the Jaguars found themselves trailing.

Being a goal down would normally spark a team back into top gear but the Jaguars were simply unable to string that decisive move in.

It was, then, in the 36th minute that the Lady, whose name had lustily and constantly been on Head Coach Patrick Vallee’s lips the past three post-match conferences, graciously came back and showed how tides turned in her presence.

Young Lions’ custodian, Syazwan Buhari, raced off his line to clear an incoming ball which had Monsef Zerka hot on its heels. Syazwan got to the ball first but his clearance hit his own defender in the back and Syazwan could only admire the delicate flight pattern of the ball as it flew over him and onto the boots of Monsef Zerka who had nothing between him and the goal.

The Moroccan International was never going to miss and his face was washed with relief after finally ending his three-match goal drought.
Monsef Zerka got his second only three minutes from the break off a Sebastien Etiemble corner. He jumped ahead of the goalie and his marker to nod the ball past Al-Qaasimy who was guarding the goal line.

A swift counter attack four minutes later saw the Young Lions levelling the score. Muhaymin Salim, receiving a pass from Sherif El-Masri just outside the box, spotted a gap in defence and powered in bullet which had no equal that night. It dipped with such ferocity into the top left hand corner of goal that had Aurelien got his hand to the ball, it would probably have ripped his glove off.

The Jaguars did not have to worry long as well. A delicately weighted through-lob by Hafiz Osman in the 54th minute caught several Young Lions’ defenders off guard. Monsef Zerka got to the ball inside the box first as it bounced off the pitch and a precise controlled flick urged the ball to jump over the onrushing Syazwan. His second touch sent the ball into the unguarded net and Monsef completed his hat-trick to be the first player in the S.League to do so this season.

Sherif El-Masri came close to equalising in the dying minutes when with only Aurelien to beat after evading the defending Jaguars, he could only direct the ball towards the ball-picker sitting beyond the left-hand corner of goal. With that, the Jaguars had done enough to halt the slide and bagged all three points.

Patrick Vallee was more a relieved man than a happy one after the rather scrappy game but chose to allow the happiness of victory to dictate his words.

“It is never easy to play against the Young Lions and we had to fight hard to win this game so I am very happy for my players that they managed to win this game,” he gushed.

Patrick acknowledged that the win was a good result for everyone and credited once again the team spirit that made the victory possible.

He added, “My players never gave up even if things did not go their way early in the game. They tried to play no matter what and that made things happen which made this win very sweet. Now we will do our work and prepare for the next game.”

Finally, after three excruciating manner of defeats, the Jaguars find ourselves on the correct end of a one-goal margin victory and it was one truly deserved. It may jolly well be that the winds of fortune have started blowing our way again judging by the manner of our victory against the Young Lions and long may that wind blow.

The fat lady sure got into shape tonight and a hearty song did she sing!

Till the next game!

LINE UPS:
Tanjong Pagar United: Aurelien Herisson, Hafiz Osman, Tengku Mushadad, Hanafi Salleh, Nor Azli Yusoff, Sazali Salleh, Asraf Rashid, Firdaus Idros, Ruzaini Zainal , Sebastien Etiemble, Monsef Zerka
Substitutes: Chua Lye Heng, Shafiq Noh, Seah Si Hao, Ng Zhi Yi, Hafiz Rosli, Lucas Jester, Firdaus Ali

Courts Young Lions: Syazwan Buhari, Fadli Kamis, Delwinder Singh, Muhaymin Salim, M Anumanthan, Iqbal Hussein, Sheikh Abdul Hadi, Al-Qaasimy Rahman, Sherif El-Masri, Amy Recha, Ammirul Emran
Substitutes: Shahul Rayyan, Shamil Shariff, Nur Na’iim Ishak, Faris Azienuddin, Amirul Adli, Shameer Aziq, Muhaimin Suhaimi

Referee: Jansen Foo
Asst Referee 1: Ong Chai Lee
Asst Referee 2: C Subash
Fourth Official: Mohd Irwan S