By Song Sung Hai

Quarter-finals here we come! An enthralling RHB Singapore Cup tie at Queenstown Stadium ended with the Jaguars finally keeping a clean sheet and registering a fulfilling one-nil victory over the Cheetahs along the way.

The tie began rather pensively with both teams scrapping it out in the middle and trying to gain control of proceedings but the tide soon turned in the Jaguars’ favour, what with Tengku ‘T15’ Mushadad mowing down anything that came his way.

Players like Sazali ‘SuperSaz’ Salleh, Zahid Ahmad and Hanafi Salleh made surprise returns from injury and their wealth of experience contributed immensely in the win. Ruzaini Zainal also put in another inspired performance and his runs down the flank threatened regularly and one such run in the 17^th minute into the box almost rewarded him with a goal but his attempt flew up to join the stars in the night sky.

Kamel Ramdani also held the ball well in the center and combined well with Sebastien Etiemble and Firdaus Idros to create havoc down the flanks but had no goals to show for in the first half with Monsef Zerka being tightly marked, as always.

Everything looked promising in the first half for the Jaguars but the Hougang Cheetahs decided to wake up in the second half and began overrunning the Jaguars’ defensive half. The Queenstown faithful suffered a lot of scares but Aurelien Herisson stepped up this time with a superbly inspired performance.

He made several heart-stopping saves with the most outstanding being a one-on-one save up against Diego Gama. It looked like the Cheetahs were going to go one up on the Jaguars when Captain Ahmad Latiff misdirected a pass straight at Diego in the 63^rd minute. The irrepressible Brazilian had only Aurelien to beat and it did feel like there was no way he was going to miss that.

Not that night, though, as Aurelien charged heroically off his line and magically got his hands onto the goal-bound shot off the Brazilian. A super save it was, indeed and the Cheetahs were impossibly denied.

Then, the magic also began upfront. Kamel Ramdani spotted Monsef in the 75^th minute and his precise punt was nodded on to the Firdaus Idros who zipped past his markers, gradually making his way into the box. Sensing blood, Firdaus whipped in the perfect cross and Monsef Zerka greeted it with a dive forward and the ball bounced off Monsef’s head, past a star-jumping Fadhil Salim and into goal to give the Jaguars a much deserved lead, based on our first half performance alone.

The Cheetahs then started getting physical in their search for an equaliser but the Jaguars were not the sort to be cowed and they held on enough to ensure advancement into the quarter-finals of the RHB Singapore Cup.

An obviously beaming Head Coach Patrick Vallée could not hide his delight at the result but did not forget to congratulate his team first on their performance and result.

“I told the players that in a Cup competition, it is not for good football and that it is all about results,” he added. “We were concerned before the game because we had several players who were injured but a few of them wanted to play and help the team. They were still not very fit but they played hard and well.”

Patrick also knew that the game was going to be tough but things can always happen positively in a big Cup game.

He continued, “It happens a lot of times in a Cup game. For us, our keeper made a lot of saves and performed very well for the team and our striker scored a goal. The rest of the nine players also played very hard. Sometimes we must fight and fight and maybe the football[standard] was not here but we try to play well also but the most important thing tonight is the result and I congratulate my team once more. I am very happy for them and for Tanjong Pagar United.”

While it remains to be seen who will be our opponents in the quarter-final of the RHB Singapore Cup, Jaguars fans can finally take comfort in the fact that the team have finally not conceded a goal and that Monsef Zerka have finally scored again. Hopefully this time, that form will continue long.

Till next time!

LINE-UPS: Tanjong Pagar United: Aurelien Herisson, Zahid Ahmad, Ahmad Latiff(c), Hanafi Salleh, Ruzaini Zainal, Sazali Salleh, Tengku Mushadad, Kamel Ramdani, Firdaus Idros, Sebastien Etiemble, Monsef Zerka
Head Coach: Patrick Vallée
Substitutes: Shamsudin Hashim, Shafiq Noh, Zairul Rahmat, Firdaus Ali, M Arvin, Hafiz Rosli, Lucas Jester

Hougang United: Fadhil Salim(c), Fairoz Hassan, Wahyudi Wahid, Igor Cerina, Shunsuke Nakatake, Firman Hanif, Diego Gama, Fazli Jaffar, Faizal Amir, Erwan Gunawan, Azhar Sairudin
Head Coach: Amin Nasir
Substitutes: Nazri Sabri, Syaqir Sulaiman, Geison Moura, Haidil Sufian, Durica Zuparic, Muhammad Nazirul, Haider Raffick

Referee: W Ravisanthiran
Asst Ref 1: Ong Chai Lee
Asst Ref 2:C Subash
Fourth Official: Lim Kok Heng