By Song Sung Hai

It is never easy to come away with a result form Hougang Stadium and that stood true last night as the Hougang Cheetahs held their fort bravely and emerged triumphant with a 4-2 victory over the Jaguars.

The Jaguars managed to put two in courtesy of Kamel Ramdani and Asraf Rashid but it was not enough to overturn the brace by Geison Moura and goals by Firman Hanif and Igor Ferreira.

While the game started at explosive pace, and both sides looking eager to tear the other apart, it took only 8 minutes for the Cheetahs to get their first goal against the run of play.

A long ball punted goalwards was met with a weak clearance off the head of Hanafi Salleh and the lurking Geison Moura wasted no time in blasting the ball past Aurelien Herisson.

Several chances came the Jaguars way but the likes of Kamel Ramdani, Monsef Zerka and Firdaus Idros could not convert their chances . One incident in the 35th minute saw Monsef heading down an exquisite long pass from Asraf Rashid to Firdaus Idros who managed to head the ball in but the linesman flagged the effort for offside.

Just a minute away from half-time, the Cheetahs struck again. This time Firman Hanif broke through the defence off a through ball by Shunsuke Nakatake and sidestepped Nor Azli Yusoff before sending a curling shot past Aurelien Herisson into the left corner of goal.

Only five minutes off the start of the second-half, Kamel Ramdani pulled one back through a penalty-kick after Firdaus Idros was hacked down inside the box and things began to look tight again.

Upping the pressure in attack did not mean much though with opportunities wasted time and again and the Jaguars were once again punished in the 73rd minute when Igor Ferreira headed in a corner kick to make it 3-1.

The game was all set five minutes later when Geison Moura latched onto a through ball and rounded Aurelien at the edge of the box. Nor Azli Yusoff ran back to cover the goal but Geison had no trouble slotting it past the defender and into goal for a 4-1 lead.

The Jaguars never gave up and were repaid in the 88th minute with a header from Asraf Rashid comfortably beating the Hougang goalie after some fine work by Firdaus Idros to set Asraf up for the goal.

Nonetheless, it was a case of too little too late and the night reflected best what the season had been for the Jaguars. Losing despite playing well is never easy to come to terms with but the Jaguars gave their all each time and it must be noted that it was their first defeat in 5 games.

Head Coach Patrick Vallee decided not to dwell too much on the result and his first thoughts were on the Tanjong Pagar faithful.

He said, “Now, the season is over and I would first to thank all the fans who support Tanjong Pagar United all year long and are always behind the team even if the results are good or bad. Hopefully we can give them a better result next season and we will work towards that.”

Touching on the game, Patrick said that the players always play to win and acknowledged that lapses in concentration cost them the game.

“ I will not blame my players for the loss but I feel disappointed for the fans who came here to watch the game. When we attack, we can score goals but it is just that we could have been more focused defensively,” he continued. “But never mind, it is the last game and now is a good time for everybody to get a good rest and see you all next season.”

The 2014 S.League season is over and the Jaguars have managed to secure a 9th place finish which seems remarkable especially after a horrendous start with the team depleted from suspensions and injuries.

Thank you for following Tanjong Pagar United this season. Stay tuned for more updates to the team for next year’s S.league.