| Fadhil Yunus |
DPMM FC head coach Steve Kean expressed his satisfaction after seeing his charges take control of Group ‘B’ in the Singapore League Cup 2017 following an impressive 5-1 victory over Tampines Rovers FC at the Jalan Besar Stadium in Singapore on Saturday.
The ‘Gegar Gegar’ men halted a winless drought of eight games in the process after a sluggish league form and are in pole position to qualify to the knock-out stages.
“We played well and we had a lot of chances. The only disappointing thing is we didn’t manage to get that clean sheet but if we had said before the game that we are going to get the amount of goals we did and played in the manner that we did, we are very pleased,” Kean told S League.
“The performance from the team has been gradually improving with the back four and goalkeeper doing well today. This result puts us in a good position and hopefully we can qualify to the semi-finals.
“In the past, we have done well in this competition so we are off to a good start,” the former Blackburn Rovers manager said.
Meanwhile, Kean’s opposite number Tampines Rovers FC head coach Jurgen Rabb admitted that he did not put the strongest squad with many key players missing from the cup tie.
DPMM FC’s Azwan Ali vies under pressure by Tampines Rovers players during the recent Singapore League Cup group match. – S LEAGUE
Tampines fielded a second string side with Prime League players Danish Uwais and Faizal Raffi promoted to the first team and without a foreign import in the starting line-up.
Ryutaro Megumi, Son Yong Chan and Ivan Dzoni were notable absentees as well as experienced players Fahrudin Mustafic, Madhu Mohana, Khairul Amri and Daniel Bennett.
“It’s normal if you play with such a team that it is not the strongest out there. I want to see a good performance from the team especially the substitutes or from the young players,” Rabb said.
The German indicated that the team lacked experience which was evident with the simple errors though he accepted the way they played during the entire match.
“For the whole 90 minutes, I accept how we have played, how we have tried and play football, how we have tried to create good chances. So what we must improve is the defence work in some situations,” concluded the Tampines Rovers FC head coach.
The Brunei-based outfit will next play Balestier Khalsa, who were beaten 2-0 by Geylang International FC in the other match, at the Jalan Besar Stadium in Singapore tomorrow.
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