Fired-up Eagles swoop on Sailors

The Lion City Sailors sank to their first defeat of the season and the first in 20 league games after a shock 1-0 loss to Geylang International in a Singapore Premier League match last night.

The Sailors, who were reduced to 10 men in the first half, had been on a club-record 19-match unbeaten run. Their last defeat was on March 20 last year, a 3-1 loss to Hougang United.

While the Eagles, who were playing their first match of the campaign, put in a performance worthy of slaying the champions in front of 978 fans at Our Tampines Hub, the Sailors will rue their decision to rotate their squad.

The Sailors made four changes to the starting line-up that saw off Hougang 3-1 in their season-opener on Sunday, with goalkeeper Izwan Mahbud, midfielder Adam Swandi and attackers Amiruldin Asraf and Faris Ramli making their first starts of the campaign.

National players Shahdan Sulaiman, Hami Syahin, Hassan Sunny and South Korean forward Kim Shin-wook, who has scored three goals in two competitive matches, were named on the bench, along with imports Maxime Lestienne and Diego Lopes.

In their absence, it was Geylang's foreigner Vincent Bezecourt who made the difference with the only goal of the match.

In the ninth minute, the French midfielder picked up the ball from just outside the box and unleashed a fierce drive that went past Izwan and into the bottom corner of the goal.

In the 34th minute, Bezecourt made another telling contribution which ended with Sailors' Brazilian Pedro Henrique receiving his marching orders.

From his own half, Bezecourt played a long ball to release striker Sime Zuzul who just about won a foot race with Henrique.

The Brazilian centre-back was then adjudged to have tripped Zuzul and received a straight red card.

The Sailors threw on their star men in the second half as Kim, Lopes and Lestienne entered the fray in search of an equaliser, but to no avail.

Geylang coach Noor Ali criticised the Sailors' starting line-up, saying: "If they decide to play that kind of team, it shows the respect you have for the opponents.

"We planned to play against their best team. Credit to my boys because they showed what teamwork is all about."

While Sailors coach Kim Doo-hoon felt the red card impacted the game, he also credited Geylang for preparing well, adding: "We'll have to go back take a look at the game again, keep our chins up, work harder to prepare better and bounce back."

The Sailors showed their strength in depth on Sunday when three of their substitutions resulted in a 3-1 win over Hougang.

But a similar plan backfired this time around.

The coach's decision to leave his stars on the bench fired up the Eagles, who showed they also have quality in the likes of Bezecourt and Zuzul.