Woodlands fall at home after the Barac show

By OPOD

Photo: Great Eastern Yeo's

WWFC 1
Goh Swee Swee 71'

HGFC 3
Jordan Webb 28' 49'
Stanislav Vidavoic 56'

After starting the season with two wins, Woodlands Wellington have gone winless for five straight games, earning only one point out of fifteen available. A brace from Canadian winger Jordan Webb and a goal from Vidakovic gave Hougang three points, while Goh Swee Swee pulled one back for the home side.

It was a well-deserved win for the Cheetahs, who returned to their winning ways after losing to Home United and drawing last week’s match against Tampines. They dominated the game from start to end. Woodlands on the other hand, only showed glimpse of their early season form, and were poor throughout the ninety minutes of action.

Hougang could have taken the lead as early as the third minute when Barac floated a freekick into the area. Woodlands custodian Che Omar came out for the ball, but completely missed it. The ball fell to Sobrie Mazelan, but his shot was too weak and Fabien Lewis managed to clear it off the line.

Barac would continue to be Woodlands’ tormentor, with his delivery from set-pieces causing all sorts of problem for the Rams. He was unlucky not to have opened the scoring in the eighteen minute, when his freekick from just outside the box clipped the post and went into Che Omar’s hand.

Woodlands could have broken the deadlock four minutes later. Farizal Basri had an attempt from just inside the box, but the dependable Fadhil Salim managed to save it acrobatically. That miss would prove to be costly for the Rams, as Jordan Webb opened the scoring with a wonder goal six minutes later.

Receiving the ball on the left hand side of the pitch, he cut in into the middle of the pitch, and unleashed a fierce shot from thirty-five yards out that hit the corner of the net. The Woodlands player were left stunned from the goal and never recovered from it.

Photo: Great Eastern Yeo's

Webb doubled his tally four minutes after the break when Barac was brought down by Woodlands defender Fabien Lewis after he tried to retrieve a cross from the Canadian. Up stepped the winger and he made no mistakes, converting the penalty.

Things got worse for Woodlands barely ten minutes later, as Hougang increased their lead to three goals. Che Omar punched out a Jordan Webb freekick, only for it to reach Diallo outside the box. The African let fly a left foot half volley from the edge of the box only for Vidakovic to deflect it into the bottom corner, beyond the reach of the outstretch legs of Lewis.

It was certainly game over by then, despite Woodlands pulling one back through Goh Swee Swee. The Woodlands winger was left unmarked as Armanizam crossed into the box and Goh managed to outjump Fadhil Salim and heads it into an empty net.

With momentum on their side, they tried to find a way back, but a Moon Soon Ho attempt which sting Fadhil Salim’s palm was all they could manage before Diallo had two attempts that went wide, which meant that the game ended 3-1 to Hougang.

Outplayed

Woodlands Wellington assistant coach Clement Teo was a visibly disappointed man after the match. He felt that his charges lost to a better side, saying, “We basically lost to a better team. We tried but I think we could have done better.”

“I won’t comment on individual performances, but we lost, the whole team lost. That’s how we work here.”

“Everyone’s at fault and that includes me,” he added.

He also felt that penalty killed off his team’s chances of getting back into the game. He said, “Definitely. Of course if the penalty was given to me, I won’t comment, but I think that it’s a little soft.”

“Decisions were made and there’s nothing we can reverse.”

Reaping the rewards

Photo: Chris Harvey

Hougang United’s head coach Nenad Bacina was delighted with his team’s performance, and felt that it was the team’s hard work that paid off. He said, “Of course, once you collect three point and then you (are) playing the way (we did), we have to be happy.”

‘This is product from our hardwork and I have to congrat(congratulate) all my players because they work very hard. They took this game very seriously, they played very professional, we controlled the game all the way.”

“I think we deserved these three points.

He also added that Jordan Webb was taken off despite being on the hunt for a hat-trick because he had a groin injury sustained from the first half and they did not want to take a risk with the Canadian.

Woodlands will next face Singapore Armed Forces at Jalan Besar on 5th April, while Hougang will face Gombak at Jurong West on 8th April.

Woodlands Wellington: Ahmadulhaq Che Omar(GK), Fabien Lewis, Daniel Hammond(C), Han Yi Guang (Armanizam Dolah 62’), Goh Swee Swee, Moon Soon Ho, Shamsurin Rahman, Edward Tan, Farizal Basri (Aloysius Yap 70’), Vincent Lee (K Sathiaraj 30’), Hussein Akil. Unused subs: Danny Chew, Guntur Djafril, Ang Bang Heng, Andy Ahmad.

Hougang United: Fadhil Salim (GK), Hasree Zais, Lau Meng Meng(C), Stanislav Vidakovic, Ante Barac, Jordan Webb (Ridhwan Osman 64’), Fazli Jaffar, Faizal Amir, Mamadou Diallo, Nurhilmi Jasni (Basit Hamid 80’), Sobrie Mazelan (Ignatius Ang 88’). Unused subs: Ridzuan Hasan, Khayrulhayat Jumat, Benedict Chua, Farhan Rahmat.

Yellow cards: Han YiGuang, Farizal Basri, K Sathiaraj (Woodlands) Stanislav Vidakovic, Sobrie Mazelan, Mamadou Diallo, Lau MengMeng (Hougang)