Scrappy win by Jaguars at the expenses of the Young Lions

View from the top of the match

Tanjong Pagar United put their recent slide to a halt with a scrappy 3-2 win over Courts Young Lions at the Jalan Besar Stadium.

By any account, it wasn't the best display of football shown by the Jaguars, but having snapped the recent poor run of form had relieved some pressure off their French coach Patrick Vallee.

Speaking to the media after the game, the 2010 title-winning coach lauded the performance shown by his depleted side.

"I'm very happy and proud of my players today for not giving up," said the Frenchman, "It was a good effort shown and especially by (Monsef) Zerka for putting up a very good performance."

For the record, the Moroccan marquee signing of the last season's Cup losing finalists netted a hat-trick to see him broke his scoring duck for the campaign after a barren spell that lasted for four matches.

Capitalized on opportunities as the result of some defensive slip-ups by the hosts, the former Moroccan international opened his account by levelling the scores in the 36th minute by slotted home the ball into the unguarded goal before gifted the visitors the lead in the 48th minute with a header off a corner.

The winning goal of the match was a master class effort by the 33-year-old by finishing off with ease after lobbing the ball over the onrushing Young Lions' custodian Syazwan Buhari on the edge of the box in the 53rd minute.

Putting those aside, the same would not say on the Jaguars backline that is besieged by the absence of key players due to injuries with the likes of Anthony Aymard and Zahid Ahmad sitting out for the match.

Should decisiveness be in place in the 18th minute, Tanjong Pagar would not have found themselves trailing by a goal when Hanafi Salleh failure to clear the ball from close range and eventually had former Geylang United striker Amy Recha triggered the scoreboard the 18th minute.

While Coach Vallee may not be too pleased with the manner how the above mentioned goal was conceded, he was pleased with the effort shown by his defence this evening.

Coach Vallee (left) shares his thoughts

Said the ex-Etoile coach:"I'm not happy with how the first goal was conceded, but overall I am happy with the effort shown by the defence with everyone from the team came to help."

Despite being the better-shaped of the two, the national developmental side could only find themselves accepted their losing fate once again after they ran out of ammunition following the short-lived equalizer by Muhaymin Salim in the 50th minute.

"We could have done better with the chances we created after the two goals that we could have equalized towards the end of the game." lamented Young Lions coach Aide Iskandar in the post-match media session.

"I am also not happy with our defence that we must learn not to repeat the same mistakes and we will continue work hard to stop conceded goals like those tonight."