Tampines Rovers go level top in S.League after win vs. Young Lions

Mono Ridzuan / www.asiana.my

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Title-chasing Tampines Rovers continued their unbeaten start to the 2016 S.League season by edging bottom-of-the-table Garena Young Lions 2-1 at Jalan Besar Stadium on Sunday night.

Goals from Shakir Hamzah and Christopher van Huizen on either side of the break were enough to help the Stags collect the three points, although Fareez Farhan pulled one back for the Young Lions just after the hour mark.

V. Sundramoothy's side were utterly dominant in the first 45 minutes, but failed to find the cutting edge in front of goal.

Star man Jermaine Pennant curled over a 25-yard free kick early on, but the fans had to wait until the 28th minute for the first shot on target. Shakir Hamzah's header from Van Huizen's corner looked destined to loop into goal before Young Lions goalkeeper Benjamin Bertrand managed to push the effort over.

The Frenchman was called into action again on 37 minutes to deny Jordan Webb from point-blank range, after the latter was put through on goal by Shahdan Sulaiman.

It looked like the first half was going to end goalless before the Stags found the breakthrough in added time through a set piece. Van Huizen's inswinging corner was touched onto the post by Billy Mehmet, before Shakir gleefully thrashed home the rebound from eight yards out.

Tampines got another one four minutes into the second half, with Van Huizen slotting home the rebound after Pennant's shot from inside the box was parried by Bertrand.

Credit to the Young Lions, they rallied together and managed to halve the deficit on 61 minutes. After Shakir was adjudged to have handled the ball inside the area, captain of the night Fareez slotted the resulting spotkick past Tampines keeper Izwan Mahbud.

Izwan then had to come back off 12 minutes from time after injuring himself in the process of saving a free-kick. However, his replacement Joey Sim had little to do with Patrick Hesse's yothful outfit unable to breach the solid Tampines backline led by Mustafic Fahrudin.

The Stags' win helps them to go second in the S.League table, level on points with Albirex Niigata (S), but behind the Japanese outfit on goal difference.

The Young Lions remain bottom of the pile after their sixth successive defeat.

Meanwhile, in the other S.League game played on Sunday night, Home United secured a 1-0 victory against Balestier Khalsa, with Danish striker Ken Ilso slotting home a 35th minute penalty.

Garena Young Lions: Benjamin Bertrand (GK), Rusyaidi Salime, Amirul Adli, Shannon Stephen, Irfan Asyraf, Hami Syahin (Zulfadhmi Suzliman 71'), Joshua Pereira, Ammirul Emmran, Adam Swandi, Fareez Farhan (C) (Gareth Low 88'), Hazim Faiz (Muhaimin Suhaimi 60')

Tampines Rovers: Izwan Mahbud (GK) (Joey Sim 78'), Fabian Kwok, Mustafic Fahrudin (C), Shakir Hamzah, Irwan Shah, Izzdin Shafiq, Shahdan Sulaiman, Christopher van Huizen (Fazrul Nawaz 62'), Jermaine Pennant, Jordan Webb (Hafiz Sujad 65'), Billy Mehmet