http://www.espnfc.com/blog/football-asia/153/post/2807775/pennant-denied-victory-in-sleague-debut
Jermaine Pennant denied victory in S.League debut for Tampines Rovers
Former Singapore international John Wilkinson breaks down Jermaine Pennant's performance in his S. League debut.
Former Liverpool winger Jermaine Pennant was denied a winning start in his S.League debut as Tampines Rovers were held to a thrilling 3-3 draw by Geylang International in front of 2,930 fans at the Jurong West Stadium on Monday night.
With Pennant coming on a second half substitute, Tampines squandered a two-goal lead to trail 3-2 with just 11 minutes to go. But they managed to salvage a point via a Yasir Hanapi stunner five minutes from time.
The Stags ending the game with just nine men after both Noh Rahman and Yasir were sent off.
Geylang started strongly and had the early opportunities, with Shariff Samat's header going just wide and Safirul Sulaiman's snapshot being parried by Tampines goalkeeper Izwan Mahbud.
But it was Tampines who opened the scoring on 13 minutes via a swift counter-attacking move. Canadian winger Jordan Webb went on a barnstorming run through the middle, exchanged passes with Billy Mehmet before firing a deflected shot past the stranded Geylang custodian Syazwan Buhari.
Despite the setback, Geylang carved out the better openings with Croatian hit man Branko Cubrilo just failing to latch on to Amy Recha's teasing right-wing cross.
Once again, Tampines showed more clinical finishing on 34 minutes. Left back Hafiz Sujad evaded Shariff's challenge before curling in a delightful cross for an unmarked Mehmet to side foot home a first time volley.
To the the visitors' credit, they managed to hit back and halve the deficit within a minute. Former Singapore Under-23 forward Amy Recha skipped past three challenges before lashing inside Izwan's near post from inside the box.
The goal scorer picked up where he left off in the second half by dispossessing Hafiz to set up Carlos Delgado inside the box, but the latter scuffed his shot disappointingly wide.
The Argentine midfielder then made amends on 55 minutes, firing home a sizzling half-volley from just outside the box after the Tampines' defence failed to deal with a corner.
Pennant came on in the 56th minute and took up the position just behind Mehmet. But before he could make an impact, captain Noh Rahman was dismissed for a second bookable offence for a late challenge on Al-Qaasimy Rahman and Tampines found themselves down to 10 men before the hour.
Geylang International
Geylang International showed great team spirit to bounce back from 2-0 down against Tampines. (Photo credit: S.League)
The visitors took advantage and completed the turnaround on 79 minutes. With the Tampines' defence at sixes and sevens after Branko Cubrilo played the ball in from the left, Stanely Ng seized in to arrow a brilliant finish into the top right corner.
But just when the Eagles thought they done enough to win the game, Tampines managed to pull level at 3-3 six minutes later with a moment of brilliance from Yasir. He guided a stupendous first-time volley from the Mehmet layoff that dipped over the despairing dive of Syazwan.
Yasir's joy proved to be short-lived as he was dismissed shortly after for an apparent elbow on Geylang substitute Gabriel Quak.
With Tampines now down to nine men, Geylang pushed forward in injury time and nearly grabbed a winner via Taufiq Ghani's piledriver. But Izwan managed to get down low to parry the goal-bound shot.
Geylang coach Hasrin Jailani was understandably the happier of the two coaches.
"Instead of being disappointed [at not getting the win], I'm very happy with how my team played," said the 40-year-old. "My game plan was to let Tampines come at us before winning the ball in our defensive third.
"We did that well and managed to get a point away from home against a very good Tampines side. Even though with nine men, they were going forward to create something."
Meanwhile, Tampines coach V Sundramoorthy lamented the defensive errors which his side made after going two goals up.
"Definitely I wanted to win this game, but football is such a game that we cannot predict," he said. "We knew Geylang came with a game plan trying to contain us, but we should have kept our composure and wrapped the game up.
"But playing with nine men, I will take the point as a good start and move on."
Tampines Rovers: Izwan Mahbud (GK), Irwan Shah (Christopher van Huizen 84'), Noh Rahman (C), Shakir Hamzah, Hafiz Sujad, Yasir Hanapi, Izzdin Shafiq, Shahdan Sulaiman, Fazrul Nawaz, Billy Mehmet, Jordan Webb (Jermaine Pennant 56')
Geylang International: Syazwan Buhari (GK), Faritz Hameed, Yuki Ichikawa, Shariff Samat, Al-Qaasimy Rahman, Nor Azli (C), Carlos Delgado, Safirul Sulaiman (Gabriel Quak 57'), Amy Recha, Branko Cubrilo (Taufiq Ghani 80'), Sahil Suhaimi (Stanely Ng 38')
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