Home United FC VS Woodlands Wellington FC

Home United FC comes into this match parading two new signings in Koreans An Hyo Yeon and Chun Jae Woon. The two attacking midfielders have been brought in to replace the departed Peres De Oliveira and Nelson San Martin. Home United's other Korean Choi Chul Woo continued in defence after playing as a centre-back in the last match against Etoile FC.

Woodlands Wellington FC started the match with only one foreigner in Kazuki Yoshino. Rachid Lajane and Abdelhadi Lakkad were both out injured. Their Chilean defender Luis Eduardo Hicks was suspended for his tie.

The start of the match saw both teams failing to produce any decent build-up. Possession was often lost after a few passes. The first real piece of action came on 15 minutes, when new signing An and Jiayi combined well with neat passes which saw the latter through into Woodlands Wellington 's box. An pulled the trigger but his shot was straight at Fajar Sarib. !0 minutes later, Woodlands Anaz Hadee misplaced his pass to Sharil Ishak and Home United had a four against two situation but Chun Jae Woon took too long on the ball and allowed the Rams to recover.

On 26 minutes, An Hyo Yeon's debut came to an abrupt end after he came of worse in a challenge with a Woodlands player. Firdaus Idros was brought on to replace him. On 35 minutes, Home United took the lead when Shi Jiayi rose highest to nod home Chun's excellent free-kick. Four minutes later, Captain Sharil Ishak should have made it two but his shot was well saved by Fajar in goal. Three minutes before half-time, Woodlands Captain Noor Ali had the ball in the net but was ruled out for offside. Half ended 1-0 in favour of our Protectors.

Our Protectors started the second half brightly creating several chances. On 48 minutes, Chun played Jiayi through with a clever pass but the latter ballooned his shot over the bar. A minute later, Sharil Ishak should have doubled Home United's advantage, but his shot was again saved by the alert Fajar Sarib. Woodlands Wellington had a good 10 minutes spell where they saw better possession and good build up gave them some half-chances. On 56 minutes, Woodlands Wellington had a big shout for a penalty when Azlan Alipah fell in the box after a Valery Heik challenge. The referee waved play on to the dismay of the Woodlands contingent. 4 minutes later, Lionel Lewis had to come off his line quickly to deny Sazali Salleh, who had dashed behind our Protectors flat defence.

Sensing the tide was turning, Head Coach Lee Lim Saeng brought on Tengku Mushadad and Sufian Anuar for the tiring Shahdan Sulaiman and Isa Halim, who had worked their socks off on the soggy pitch. Sufian Anuar, a former Young Lions forward who has been out through injury since last year, was buzzing and his efforts paid off on 85 minutes, when he coolly curled the ball into the corner of the goal, despite Winston Yap's close attention. The goal was much relief to the Home United contingent, who had endured seeing our Protectors conceding late goals this season.

With this comfortable win, our Protectors next travels to Hougang Stadium on Monday to take on bottom club Sengkang Punggol FC, whose performances have plunged after an encouraging start to the season.

Line-up: Lionel Lewis, Rosman Sulaiman, Juma'at Jantan, Valery Heik, Isa Halim (Sufian Anuar 70"), Shi Jiayi, Shahdan Sulaiman (Tengku Mushadad 64"), An Hyo Yeon (Firdaus Idros 26"), Sharil Ishak, Chun Jae Woon, Choi Chul Woo,