Despite the good football on show last night, the Jalan
Besar stadium was a brewing cauldron, threatening to erupt at any moment.
With the referee struggling to maintain control of the
game, it was left to Shi Jiayi and Home United to play the matadors as the
toyed with the raging bulls.
As both teams tried to pack the midfield in the early
proceedings, Shi and company gradually got themselves in the game, especially
with Mendy and Qiu Li being a constant menace up front.
Restricted to shots from outside the box, Home’s
persistence finally paid off in the 22nd minute when Shi, like a
salmon rose the highest to bullet the ball into the back of the net for Home’s
first goal.
As the match progessed, tempers started flaring and the
first incident of violence came in the 29th minute. Gombak’s Park
Kang Jin was penalised for a wild lunge on Mendy, however, his subsequent
action of kicking the ball back to referee aid Hussein was marked as a sign of
dissent. Enraged, he then said something else to earn himself a red card.
Taking full advantage of the situation Home capitalised on
their one-man advantage and within a minute of the sent off, Qiu Li rattled the
crossbar. Gombak’s goal was leading a charmed life as just before the break,
Mendy’s header hit the woodwork before going out.
Just three minutes after the restart, Home looked to put
the game beyond doubt as Shi once again, out jumped everyone to bullet the ball
into the net for Home’s second goal.
Just a minute after Home’s second goal, Gombak tried to get
themselves back in the game when Chang Jo Yoon’s pile driver from outside the
penalty box tore the back of the net.
But any hope of a comeback was firmly extinguished in the
55th minute when Qiu Li calmly converted a penalty after he sent
Gombak custodian Zakariah Nerani the wrong way.
Home was now bossing the game and entertained the crowd
with fancy footwork and excellent passing. However, Walid Lounis must have been
far from impressed, a clash with Home’s Sufian Anwar saw him produce a slam
that came from a wrestling handbook as he threw him over his shoulders.
With the match threatening to boil over, Firdaus Idros took
the steam out of the bulls as he calmly rounded the keeper in the 79th
minute to slot in Home’s fourth goal of the game.
Feeling a sense of injustice at the sending off, Gombak
head coach Darren Stewart said after the game, “The boy (Park) can’t speak
English, so I don’t know what he could have said.”