October 4, 2004

October 3, 2004 National Stadium

Tampines Rovers	4	1	Home United
Tan Kim Leng 36’ Noh Alam Shah 94’ Mirko Grabovac 111’ Kim Chan Joong 119’			Indra Sahdan 45’

Tampines Rovers outlasted Home United to complete their S-League and Singapore Cup double with a 4-1 extra-time win in front of a 17,000 National Stadium crowd.

The Stags were deadlocked with Home after 90 minutes, as Tan Kim Leng and Indra Sahdan struck mercurial goals that canceled each other out but Home United, who had A Sivakumar dismissed in the second half, crumbled though in extra time to goals from Noh Alam Shah, Mirko Grabovac & Azlan Alipah.

It was a night where everything that could go wrong for Home United did. They lost S-League Player of the Year, J.Surachai through injury as early as the 19^th minute, and were with 10 men after Siva Kumar was sent off in the 66^th minute. If that was not bad enough for the Protectors, captain S. Subramani & talismanic striker Indra both had to be substituted at the end of the second half because of injury.

It left Home United Steve Darby unable to make a tactical substitution as his side battled to stem a rising Tampines Rovers surge in extra-time.

All that could not have matter if the Protectors had make full use of their early chances but Tampines keeper Rezal Hassan proving himself to be in an ungiving mood. He made 2 stops within the opening 10 minutes, tipping over Peres De Oliveira’s long-range screamer after a lay off & thereafter denying Egmar's close-range shot with his legs when Indra put in a great cross for Emgar. Buoyed by their scent of blood early on, Home United had the lion’s share of possession as they practically camped inside the Stags' half  but the Protectors had to make early adjustments to their game plan as midfield dynamo Surachai was replaced by Fahmie Abdullah after pulling up injured following a collision.

Proceedings were more even thereafter, and the Stags slowly started to gain a foothold on the game. The Stags revival culminated in a moment of brilliance by Tan Kim Leng who took down a cross from the left, cut inside & fired in an unstoppable shot into the roof of the net. Up to that point, Home keeper Sean Roberts was hardly troubled but the South African keeper could do little but cast his eyes to the heavens as Kim Leng wheeled away to celebrate his superb goal. Stags nearly doubled their advantage a few moment leater when Grabovac squared the ball for Aliff Shafaein, unmarked in the box. The little midfield dynamo's delicate side-foot beat Roberts, but came back off the inside of the post & in a mad scramble Roberts picked up the ball.

As the first half entered its final seconds, the Stags looked to be heading for the break with their one-goal advantage intact. Protectors however had other ideas, as they reminded the crowd of their quality. Winger Azhar Baksin in a moment of pure brilliance laid a feint on Stag Santi Chaiyaphuak as well as squeezing through 2 defenders before finding Indra in the box with the pass. With barely a split-second look at goal, Indra fired in a sharp strike beating Rezal. Indra who always rise to the big occasion got the equalizer.

The Protectors started the second half as they did the first & should have gotten the lead only for an excellent clearance by Stags defender Choketawee Promrut on the line after Rezal only managed to palm Egmar’s stiff shot behind him. But the balance of the game was to shift as Siva Kumar was send off with a second yellow card for a blatant shirt-tug on Alam Shah.

Home United though were not going to let the odds dictate their destiny without a fight though, and they found themselves with perhaps the chance of the game when the Stags defensive pairing of Choketawee and Sead Muratovic - normally so composed - got in each other's way for a header, leaving Indra space to blaze down the right. The Singapore international sidestepped an on-rushing Rezal, & pushed the ball past Choketawee's desperate back-lunge into the box for strike partner Egmar. A near certain goal - but the S-League's top goalscorer contrived to scrape his shot off the wrong side of the post inside, much to the relief of the two erring Stags.

Soon Home United again had to make a forced substitution, their second & not their last of the night, as captain Subramani limped off for Mohammed Mardani, having pulled up sharply after a challenge. Indra was the third as he got injured with a clash with Rezal in the box & was replaced by young midfielder Imran Sahib.

Finally the sending off, injuries & forced substitution took their toll on Home United as Tampines Rovers surged ahead 3 minutes into extra time. Noh Alam Shah skipped past three tired challenges & struck a rasping shot from outside the box that nestled snugly past Roberts' reach. To their credit, Home did not look a beaten side and kept plugging away at the Stags defence. Imran won the ball in the middle of the park and played Peres through on goal, but the Brazilian’s effort ended wide of Rezal’s right upright. But Tampines had a telling card to play in super-sub Steven Tan & the wide man reinforced that tag with just his second touch after coming on, flicking into the six-yard box for Grabovac to plant his shot past Roberts to make it 3-1. With the Protectors pouring forward in a desperate bid to rescue the game, Stags substitute Azlan Alipah cut any hopes of a lifeline a minute from the end, pouncing on a loose ball in the box to slam home the fourth after Roberts had parried Grabovac's initial attempt.