August 4, 2004

While other championship contenders are gearing up for the final leg of the NTUC Income-Yeo's S-League title race, Woodlands Wellington appear to have lost their footing altogether. Another shock result - 2-3 home defeat against underdogs Balestier Khalsa – after last week 0-0 draw with another underdog Sinchi have all but sounded the death knell for Woodlands' championship hopes.

Rumours are now rife that this latest defeat may cost Woodlands' rookie coach Simon Clark his job next season with former Singapore national coach Vincent Subramaniam the man widely tipped to take over the Rams.

Despite a magnificent start to the season, which saw the Rams enjoy a blistering run of 6straight wins, Woodlands Wellington are now lying in an unflattering fifth position, behind Home United, Tampines Rovers, Young Lions & SAFFC.

Clark, who succeeded Malaysian M Karathu at the end of last season, remains defiant about his role in club

The 37-year-old Englishman said he will not walk away now or ever. He admitted though he has spoken to the chairman about next year as his coaching team have done reviews on players this year but no decisions have been reached yet on his part for next year

Clark conceded that his team's title challenge this year is over & it is a big blow to the ambitious northern club, who declared in pre-season that they would settle for nothing less than the championship.

He felt it had been overall a disappointing season especially considering that they were leading the league for 15 weeks.

When asked to reflect on what went wrong?

Clark frankly admitted the Rams have been conceding too many goals all season & with them not scoring enough lately the season came apart. Still he does not put the entire blame on the defence (Which is part of his role as a defender) or attack as he feel it is a collective thing with defending starting from the front & scoring starts from the back.

He now hope he can put things right, & help the team to concede fewer goals in the remaining games especially considering his playing background as a tough tackling centreback