Home United beat Sengkang Punggol to go second in S.League table

Commentary by Les Tan. Pictures by Lai Jun Wei.

Bishan Stadium, Monday, November 3, 2008 – Home United FC beat Sengkang Punggol FC 3-0 this evening at the Bishan Stadium to go second on the table, ahead of the Super Reds on goal difference. Home United created a hatful of chances in the first half, doing everything right except for scoring.

They finally opened the scoring through Peres de Oliveira in the 57th minute with a shot from 30m, the ball taking a bounce before skipping over the exposed Joey Sim in the Sengkang Punggol goal. Joey acquited himself well in the first half where he made excellent saves to deny Home United and was rightly upset he was left badly exposed for the first goal.

Having conceded the first goal, the Sengkang Punggol resistance fell apart and Kengne Ludovick scored the second in the 65th minute after a series of intricate passes inside the Sengkang Punggol penalty box gave him the whole goal to shoot at.

Tengku Mushadad, who came on as a substitute for Shi Jiayi, then added the third goal for Home in the dying moments of the game to wrap up the three points.

Despite this win, Home United still need results in the other matches to go their way for them to have any chance of winning the S.League championship title. They now trail SAFFC by one point but have played one game more.

All eyes now turn to the game between SAFFC and the Super Reds at Yishun Stadium on Wednesday, November 5th.

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90th min: Ludovick tries his luck, turning and shooting from just outside the box but it just goes past the right upright.
87th min: Tengku Mushadad runs on to a nice pass from de Oliveira and finishes under the body of Joey Sim. 3-0.
85th min: Shahril plays a nice one-two with Farhan Farook (#2), squares it to Ludovick who dummies. de Oliveira picks it up, tries to go around his marker, falls at the edge of the box… but no free kick. Ref refuses to give it.
78th min: Home Utd should win this game. Now the only interesting thing to observe is the performance of the national players in the Home Utd team. Indra had a quiet game, his injury not helping him. Shahril’s touch is suspect. Tengku Mushadad (#15) just came on for Shi Jiayi (#7) who had a consistent game with only one pass that I remember going astray.
76th min: A promising Home Utd move breaks down with Shahril Jantan. The guy can’t thread his passes fine enough.
73rd min: Sengkang looking ragged. Passing breaking down. Estevao keeps falling down after kicking the ball. It’s starting to become a little too obvious.
70th min: Indra looking bad, limping to the sideline. Head bowed. Looks like his season is over. Bye bye Asean Cup?
67th min: Estevao misses a clear header after Simic swings in a cross from a free kick that Lewis couldn’t get to. Sengkang rue the miss.
65th min: Ludovick scores the second for Home Utd after a series of passes inside the Sengkang penalty box left him with the goal at his mercy. He couldn’t miss.
63rd min: Shahril Ishak just missed a golden chance with a one-on-one with the Sengkang keeper. He hits the ball straight at keeper Joey Sim. That won’t help his chances for a starting spot in the national team.
62nd min: Suriyandi Naib (Sengkang, #7) blazes over after Simic sets him up nicely from a free kick.
60th min: Juma’at Jantan almost doubles the tally for Home Utd with a stiff shot from the edge of the box that hits the right upright.
57th min: FINALLY, de Oliveira scores the first for Home Utd after advancing and shooting unhindered. The ball bounced once before skipping over an exposed Joey Sim in goal. 1-0 to Home Utd.
51st min: Shahril (Home) plays an unintended one-two with Winston Yap (Sengkang, #2) but the latter recovers to tackle the ball away from Shahril.
49th min: Luis Eduardo Hicks (#20) cleverly wins a free kick for Sengkang in a dangerous position 30m out. Simic hits the free kick into the wall.
46th min: Shahril Ishak gets to byeline metres from goal but his cross is deflected harmlessly into the arms of Joey Sim.
Second half starts
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45th min: Half-time whistle goes. Still 0-0. Home Utd doing everything right except score.
44th min: Double save by Joey Sim from Naruphol and Ludovick. Crowd cannot believe Home Utd did not score. Unbelieveable.
43rd min: Indra is playing in…midfield? He went all the way back his defender to get the ball.
41st min: de Oliveira (Home Utd) hits a long-range effort that Joey Sim palms away. Home Utd still passing, probing. Pretty passes but the final ball is not telling.
39th min: Sengkang playing some pretty football. A one-two between Simic and Estevao and the return is too far for Simic. Nice while it lasted.
38th min: Indra down to the byeline, centres…Ludovick can’t connect. Another Home Utd chance down the drain.
35th min: I think we just saw the first Sengkang shot on target by Simic after a series of passes that opened space for the Sengkang captain. Lionel Lewis (Home Utd, #18) saves easily.
34th min: Walid Lounis (Home Utd, #25) stops the progress of Estevao. The latter goes down a little too easily. Lounis probably telling him to play football standing up.
32nd min: Juma’at Jantan (#4) gets a cross field cross, cuts inside, shoots…Joey Sim saves, pushing the ball out for a corner. The Home Utd crowd groan.
30th min: Reginaldo Estevao (#15) of Sengkang just hit a long-range shot that turned away from goal. Sengkang hasn’t had a shot on target yet. Estevao has nice touches though. Not much support for him when he gets the ball.
26th min: Syed Fadhil (#11) misses an easy header from a de Oliveira cross. He didn’t even have to jump for it. What a waste. Should have been 1-0 for Home Utd.
25th min: Home Utd reserves warming up. And this is only the first half.
22nd min: Sengkang playing with so many men behind the ball. No options for Simic when he gets the ball.
Both teams playing the football on the ground. Nice to watch. None of the “hoof it and run” nonsense.
16th min: Another chance for Home Utd’s Naruphol wasted. Home United are creating chances but just can’t score.
14th min: Indra is through and finds himself with only the keeper to beat. Tame shot. Wasted chance.
14th min: Zdravko Simic finds himself in space after a nice one-two. Blazes it over.

I count one Sengkang attack so far. The ball swung in from the right flank to no effect, failing to find two players in the box.
11th min: Indra (#3) almost scores after Ludovick rounds the keeper and finds him with a pass but Sengkang charge down the attempt.
9th min: Home squander a chance. Rosman Sulaiman (#14) finds himself free in the box and all the time in the world to cross it to a teammate but doesn’t look up and hits the ball across the face of goal.
5th min: Home thread the ball around the field. Pleasing to the eye. Peres de Oliveira (#20) swings it in. Ball falls kindly to Naruphol (#37) after Ludovick flicks it on. Naruphol shoots – keeper saves. Out for a corner. Nothing of note comes from the corner.
2nd min: Nice through pass from Home United’s Shi Jiayi (#7) to Kengne Ludovick. He holds off Ratna Suffian but his weak shot is saved by Joey Sim of Sengkang Punggol.
1st min: Home concede a corner. Nothing comes of it.