By Song Sung Hai

The last game of the standard season fully sums up the wretched luck plaguing the Jaguars all year round as yet another rogue call by the man in the middle gifted a penalty and a 2-1 win to the Bruneian Wasps last night.

It surely was a night of promises for the Queenstown faithful as the Jaguars, missing Monsef Zerka who was out injured and Captain Ahmad Latiff, whom Head Coach Patrick Vallée had opted to start on the bench, swarmed forward with a fervent desire to set things right after our last encounter with the Wasps.

Play was at electric pace as the Jaguars overwhelmed DPMM FC in attack and the Wasps looked especially vulnerable, a stark contrast from previous encounters. It was only right then that the Jaguars took the lead in the 22nd minute when Tengku Mushadad swiped a pass to Kamel Ramdani who was just outside the box.

The French-Algerian maestro dipped his body to the right, instantly out-manoeuvering his marker and a stinging left whammer of a shot curled in, dipped wickedly just in front of the diving DPMM custodian and bounced over him into the net.

The goal somewhat shocked the Wasps into some sort of action and the Route One masters soon started doing what they did best; hoofing the ball up in search of either Roy O’ Donovan or Rodrigo Tosi but Aurelien Herisson was often there to intercept whenever the ball flew into the box.

It took yet another set-piece to expose the Jaguars and this time it was a corner-kick in the 61st minute. Rodrigo Tosi, Anthony Aymard and Aurelien Herisson all jumped to claim the ball but it was Tosi’s head that succeeded this time and the ball bounced down into an open goal.

The game then accelerated at a furious pace as both sides attacked each other without reprieve. Ahmad Latiff had come on for Sebastien Etiemble in the 58th minute and the irrepressible forward was victim to several off-the-ball incidences in order to prevent him from scoring.

The forward was often elbowed and shoved in the back, sometimes in the box but of course ignored by official Ahmad A’Qashah, who decided that Ahmad Latiff is a big man and can take petty forms of physical abuse. Such a massive respect for the Jaguars captain by the match official is truly a thing to be admired.

It was obvious then in stoppage time, that the match official did not think much of Rodrigo Tosi’s manliness when he went down in the box after challenging for the ball with Hanafi Salleh, whose left hand had merely crossed his chest. Thus, the referee blew for the penalty kick to set right the balance of the game. In his eyes, the infringement was clear; a stronger man had forced his physical superiority upon a man in need of protection.

Admiration for the man in the middle swelled the ranks of the supporters in the stadium because if Ahmad A’Qashah had merely shown tolerance and understanding in his undertaking of his duties, it was clear to everyone now that he was most definitely a philanthropist.

A grateful Rodrigo Tosi got up and sent the ball straight down the middle from the spot, sending Aurelien diving away to grab the win and three points for his team.

Head Coah Patrick Vallée had nothing but praise for his lads who had put in a skilful and gutsy display of dominance.

“I like how my team handled this game, how they fought and managed the game tactically. We did ver well. We scored one goal, a very nice goal. It’s what we had worked on during training on how to push DPMM and cause them trouble,” he added.

Patrick had known how the Wasps would approach the game saying that “I know they will play long ball and will be very physical.”

He continued, “I expected it. They won’t try to play football but will rely on the long balls to the side and cross and the long balls to O’Donovan and Tosi. We managed everything very well except for one corner kick and at the end we do not know why the referee gave a penalty as it was a harmless challenge from my player.”

Patrick Vallée expressed happiness instead of sadness with the manner his lads played and rued the factors that has plagued them all season.

“We will see now what we can do. The second round is finished and we will do our best to finish as high as we can and prepare for the next season.”

Line-ups

Tanjong Pagar United: Aurelien Herisson, Hafiz Osman(c), Hanafi Salleh, Nor Azli Yusoff, Zahid Ahmad, Tengku Mushadad, Anthony Aymard, Asraf Rashid, Firdaus Idros, Kamel Ramdani, Sebastien Etiemble
Head Coach: Patrick Vallée
Substitutes: Shamsudin Hashim, Shafiq Noh, Ahmad Latiff, Ruzaini Zainal, K Selvendhran, Zairul Rahmat, Afiq Tan

DPMM FC: Wardun Yussoff, Azwan Ali, Azwan Saleh, Roberto Alviz, Rodrigo Antonio Tosi, Rosmin Kamis (c), Boris Raspudic, Roy O’Donovan, Joseph Gamble, Adi Said, Abdul Aziz
Head Coach: Steve Kean
Substitutes: Azman Ilham, Shahrulrizal Abd Rahman, Sairol Sahari, Maududi Hilmi Kasmi, Helmi Zambin, Najib Tarif, Shahrazen Said

Referee: Ahmad A’Qashah
Asst Referee 1: Mohd Ridwan Bin Ali
Asst Referee 2: Syed Ibrahim
Fourth Official: Jansen Foo