Kanan delighted with battling Eagles

Before the game, Kanan had said he expected at least a draw against the eight-time S.League champions and his charges delivered, coming back from two goals down thanks to strikes from Mun Seung-man and Amy Recha.

"We had a good fighting spirit, and despite being 2-0 down we didn't collapse," said the manager. 

"I was very worried SAFFC might go 3-0 up and there would have been no coming back from that. But coming back to 2-1 gave us a lifeline."

Kanan did admit there was an element of luck with Mun's goal. The winger's cross, meant for Rizawan Abdullah, evaded the entire Warriors' backline and found the back of the net via Shahril Jantan's left post. 

"Maybe for the first goal, Mun meant to cross and it went in," he admitted. 

"[But] We came out well in the second half and created a lot of chances. We could have even gone on to win the game."

That certainly didn't look like the case when the Eagles were two down and Kanan admitted his side had some defensive problems to deal with.

"Our right side is a bit weak," he said.

"I told my players whenever the ball is in the attacking third, you have to look out for number nine [Mislav Karoglan, who scored the game's opening goal from a simple tap-in], because he's very dangerous in the box, but they did not look for him and he scored.

"Even the second goal came through our right when we gave away a free-kick."

However, Kanan was quite candid in his opinion of SAFFC, who he felt do not play as a team.

"I saw them play the last three games. They were not very impressive as a team. I thought they were quite disoragnised. They have good individual players, but as team they were not a threat to us," he opined. 

"We work as a unit, so we were confident of getting a result, at least a draw. A win would have been a very good bonus."

Prior to Thursday's game, the Warriors had scored late winners in their previous three games and Kanan admitted that was a concern going into the final stages of the match.

"I told the boys that we must concentrate in the last 10 minutes - that's when SAFFC have been winning in their last few games. We did very well, we did not give them any room to get in behind the defence," he said.

Watch: Highlights - SAFFC 2-2 Geylang United...More videos

Ultimately, Recha's 78th minute strike was enough to seal the point for Geylang, and Kanan stressed the need to blood the youngster gradually.

"Amy Recha has been coming on a substitute in the last few games. He's only 19 and we don't want to throw him into the deep end," he said.

"Every game he plays, he's performing at the moment. We will build him slowly and maybe next year we can start him in the first eleven."

Geylang next play Philippines' Loyola Mercalo Sparks in the opening round of the RHB Singapore Cup on Friday, May 18. Kanan said the draw with SAFFC had given his side a lot of confidence going into the competition, although he admitted not knowing much about his side's opponents.

"We're looking forward to the Singapore Cup, but don't know the strength of the Loyola team. I know they're quite a good team, they're lying second in the league."