Relief for Kanan after Geylang down Harimau
Geylang International coach V. Kanan was a relieved man at the weekend after his side picked up their first win of the season by beating Harimau Muda 4-1.
After suffering back-to-back defeats in their opening two games of the 2013 Great Eastern-YEO's S.League campaign against Tampines Rovers and Balestier Khalsa, the Eagles finally got on the board on Sunday at the Pasir Gudang Stadium.
Captain Jozef Kaplan led the way for Geylang with a clinical hat-trick while Nurhazwan Norasikin weighed in with a cracking effort to down the Malaysians, who managed an injury-time consolation through Faizat Ghazli's looping header.
Admitting to being relieved after his new-look side finally fired, Kanan called for them to remain focused with testing games against Warriors FC and Home United on the horizon.
"I'm very pleased with our performance today [Sunday]," he said. "We are a young team and many players came from our Prime League side and we needed time to gel.
"We wanted this first goal badly, which we got, and after that the floodgates opened. At the end of the day, the extra work in training paid off.
"We don't want to get carried away by the scoreline because we still have a lot of work to do.
"We have Warriors and Home next and even though they are not doing well, I think they are still good teams and we have to work very hard to move up the ladder."
While the victory was enough to take the Eagles off the foot of the table and up to 9th, the result was soured in injury-time when Taufiq Ghani was handed a straight red, something which Kanan admits will give him a headache in their coming matches.
"Of course I'm very angry with what he did," he added. "We were 4-1 up before the red card and it is not necessary for him to do such a thing.
"They [the players] should be patient in this kind of situation and I hope they will learn.
"This red card will give me a problem in midfield because Shah Hirul is still recovering from an operation. With Taufiq out, I have a big problem in the middle and I might have to bring in some Prime League players to fit in."
Harimau Muda coach Razip Ismail, whose side had picked up four points from their opening three matches prior to Sunday, was left puzzled by their lacklustre display.
"I'm very disappointed with our performance today [Sunday]," he said. "I don't know what happened but we just had a very bad game.
"Out of the four goals we conceded, three came from our own mistakes. We deserved today's [Sunday's] result."
Geylang are next in action on Saturday when they entertain Warriors, while Harimau Muda visit Woodlands Wellington a day before.
Image courtesy of Geylang International