After a substitute appearance almost two weeks ago, all eyes
were on the man in the No.9 as he lined up alongside his
old and new Rovers team-mates for the first time since that fateful
Singapore Cup Final of 2007.
There had been doubts over his match fitness and technical ability,
having not played at this level for a long time, but his two goals
and numerous chances to convert were a testament to the fact that
his ability has not faded away with the seven-month ban.
Noticeable missing figures in the lineup were veterans Rafi Ali and
Zulkarnaen Zainal, the former out with an injury while the
latter served the first of his two-match
suspension.
Despite these absences, the energetic Alam Shah was dangerous from
the beginning, and as early as the third minute threatened to
score as Santi Chaiyaphuak’s cross was headed down into his
path by Ridhuan Muhammad, but his shot flew past the left
post.
On the ten-minute mark, Qiu Li bagged his eleventh goal of the
season with an easy tap-in, after Ang Bang Heng failed to muster a
proper save to Alam Shah’s overhead kick.
Alam Shah then turned provider for Khairul Amri in a quick
counterattack after Fahrudin Mustafic volleyed the
ball away from the penalty box, out of Paul Bekombo’s reach, but
Amri aimed for the middle and sent his shot right into the
goalkeeper’s safe hands.
The 28-year-old could have scored early when Ridhuan toe-poked
a cross from the extreme right which shaved past the top of his
head and in front of an empty goal. The loose ball landed at
Amri’s feet, but even he failed to contribute effectively to the
scoreline.
Tampines’ failure to convert their numerous chances was punished
when the speedy Hironori Saruta equalized for the away side in
stoppage time at the end of the first half.
Mba Vitus Onyekachi’s through pass down the middle caused panic
amongst the Stags defence, as Rezal Hassan came off his line only
to see Mustafic, Shariff Abdul Samat and Sutee Suksomkit embarrass
themselves in a three-way collision, allowing the Japanese
forward to volley the ball into an empty net.
However, Tampines managed to raise their game in the second half,
and five minutes after the restart, Santi blazed through the middle
and threaded a pass to to Alam Shah, who beat his marker and shot
past the keeper to record his first goal of the season.
Not too long later, Tampines were 3-1 up as Ridhuan tore down the
right flank and sent in a quick, low cross to Amri, who
slammed the ball into the bottom near corner.
Despite the attacking prowess, Tampines appeared weak at the back
as they were exposed by Balestier several times in the match.
If Saruta’s goal was not warning enough, they were tested
again twice in the second half, when Rezal smothered Rhysh
Roshan Rai’s narrow-angled shot and cleared away a loose
ball.
When Mustafic then missed a backpass and was pressured
by Bekombo, Rezal saved his team again by getting his
hands to the powerful shot from outside the box by
the Cameroonian.
Alam Shah rounded off a wonderful evening for himself and his team
in the 72nd minute, faking a defender and adding his second by
slipping the ball in between Ang’s legs.
Aliff Shafaein replaced Amri in the 80th minute and could
have provided the man dubbed “the Crown
Prince” with a hat-trick in the closing stages,
but the latter saw his shot swerve just past
the left post.
Despite not making the game more memorable by scoring thrice,
Alam Shah was happy with two, and now looks set to reclaim his
former glory as the king of Tampines.
“I feel great, and it is good for a striker to get early goals, and
for his fellow strikers to score as well,” he said after the
match.
“I wouldn’t say we were very good for the first half, but this is a
young squad and we need to take our time.”
Alam Shah also likened his current role as a mentor-figure to the
younger Amri and Qiu Li to the one Mirko Grabovac played when he
was still at the club.
“I am now doing what Mirko did for me in the past,” he said. “The
three of us are doing very well together in training for the past
few days, but there is still a lot of work to do, and a lot of
understanding to be cultivated.”
On the other end, Balestier coach Nasaruddin Jalil admitted
that lack of experience was one of the major deciding factors
in the match.
“We all know Alam Shah is a good striker, but our defenders made it
too easy for him,” said Nasaruddin.
“Experience is experience. Our defending was not tight enough and
we made simple but fundamental mistakes which we should not be
making. If you don’t mark strikers properly, even the lousy ones
would be able to score a goal.
“For strikers, if you don’t score, you don’t lose matches, but it
is different for the defenders.”
Nasaruddin also commented on his team’s lack of ability to sustain
a performance for 90 minutes, as seen in the second half when they
let in three goals after a strong first period.
“We were able to reduce their chances in the first half, because we
managed to close them down and shut them off, but the second half,
we sat back and then they came at us.
“When I decide to play an offensive and highly intense game, we
will be able to put pressure on any team if we are able to sustain
the intensity, but we cannot do so and because of this our
confidence drops.
“I can see players who are willing to push up, but if we do too
much offensively, we will expose our back, and the defenders need
to work on identifying this problem.
“We had our chances on goal, but we just don’t have enough
experience.”
