Hougang to tackle bad behaviour

By TODAY

SINGAPORE - After dwelling at the bottom two places in the last five seasons as Sengkang Punggol, they had hoped for a turn of fortune with a name change.

It happened: Playing as Hougang United this year, they finished seventh out of 12 teams in the 2011 Great Eastern-Yeo's S-League season.

The club now look to tackle another problem: Indiscipline. While not an uncommon issue for many teams, Hougang's year was blotted by a violent brawl that erupted on their home turf against Etoile in May.

Hougang make comeback blitz at Clementi

Paul Green
info@sleague.com

TPUFC 1 - 3 HGFC

In what looked initially like being a humdrum affair at Clementi Stadium on Saturday night, visitors Hougang United overcame a 0-1 deficit early in the second half to blitz home side Tanjong Pagar United 3-1, thanks largely to an electric hat-trick inside five minutes by injury-prone Diego de Oliveira.

It was of course a wholehearted team effort that won the day, though the three-goal haul certainly turned things around, totally deflating a team that had outshone them completely in a goalless first half.

Hougang, urged on by their most vocal contingent of supporters in a long while, including their own Hougang MP Yaw Shin Leong, who wore the Cheetahs’ colours as proudly as any of the other ‘Hools’, as the fans called themselves, proved too good on the night.

RHB Singapore Cup: Etoile clinch third place in feisty encounter

Kenneth Tan
info@sleague.com

Photo: RHB Singapore Cup 2011

Etoile 3 - 0 HGFC

Etoile FC clinched third place in the RHB Singapore Cup tournament after romping past surprise package Hougang United 3-0 in the playoff match at Jalan Besar Stadium on Saturday afternoon.

Second-half goals from Franklin Anzite and Theo Raymond added the gloss to an early Kamel Chaaouane strike, ensuring that the French side went home the happier of the two.

A straightforward match this was not, however, with a fiery 90 minutes played out between both sides seeing three red cards dished out by referee Sukhbir Singh and a number of mass confrontations between both sets of players.

Home take conservative path to victory

Paul Green
info@sleague.com

Photo: Gale

HGFC 0 - 2 HUFC

It may have seemed to those watching that Great Eastern-YEO’S S.League leaders Home United were devoid of ideas or imagination during the first half of their Tuesday night match at Hougang Stadium, but according to Protectors coach Lee Lim Saeng after the game, that was all part of the strategy he had devised against Hougang United.

The Cheetahs may have been missing five players, but three of them were defenders and none were strikers, so he had reasoned that scoring goals was likely to be less of a problem for his men than conceding them.

Lee therefore went for a conservative approach in the first period before coming out in the second for what ended as a 2-0 win for his Protectors.

“Hougang are dangerous on the counterattack, so I did not want my players taking too many risks,” he explained.