Title race wide open as Stags hold firm

Tampines Rovers swatted aside reports of disharmony in the squad and dismal domestic form to grind out a shock 0-0 draw with leaders and defending champions Albirex Niigata in both teams' penultimate Singapore Premier League (SPL) match last night.

The result at the Jurong East Stadium means that the Lion City Sailors (42 points) can leapfrog Albirex on goal difference if they beat Geylang International tomorrow at Our Tampines Hub.

The final day of the season, Oct 10, will then see Albirex taking on Tanjong Pagar at Jurong East while the Sailors will face Balestier Khalsa.

Worryingly for the Japanese side, who have won four of the last five titles, their only loss of the season came against the Jaguars at the same venue last month.

Albirex head coach Keiji Shigetomi said: "We have to give credit to Tampines for defending well and trying to hit us on the counter-attack.

"We had our chances to win the game but probably we did not keep our composure.

"Now, we have to do our job by winning the next game against Tanjong Pagar. The rest is not important. If we want to be champion, we must have confidence."

For Tampines, the point against Albirex means they have now secured a spot in the AFC Cup as the third-best local team, behind the Sailors and Hougang United.

Going into the fixture against Albirex, all signs pointed to a stroll in the park for the White Swans as the Stags' defensive record made for grim reading: In their 25 matches this season, Tampines had conceded a whopping 77 goals - 50 in the SPL and 27 during their six-match Asian Champions League campaign.

Their Asian outing had also sparked a skid, with the team losing five of their last seven matches before last night.

In the build-up to the match, there were also revelations of infighting amongst the squad with some players saying the club had "a toxic environment".

Yesterday's 0-0 draw with Albirex was Tampines' first clean sheet in 17 matches.

52

Tampines' league scoring streak ended at 52 games.

But there was no sign of friction on the night, with the Stags fighting hard for each other and limiting the chances that Albirex were able to create.

The end result? A first clean sheet in 17 matches.

Marshalled by a veteran central defensive partnership that had a combined age of 80 - Daniel Bennett, 43, and Baihakki Khaizan, 37 - Tampines were assured at the back.

In front of them, foreigners Kyoga Nakamura and Zehrudin Mehmedovic protected the backline effectively with their tireless closing down and relieved pressure by keeping hold of the ball when their team needed to get higher up the pitch.

Ironically though, while Tampines have managed one of the best results since their post-ACL slump began, their proud record of scoring in 52 straight league matches came to an end.

Coach Gavin Lee said: "We gained confidence as the game wore on... we dug deep and credit to the players for that.

"We chose to give up possession today and that needed a lot of focus and discipline. We executed the game plan well and, given that it's our third match in seven days, massive respect to everyone involved for doing that so well."

Referring to reports of disharmony within the squad, Lee added: "We put everything aside to focus on this game. Just like we have throughout the season, we do our best to put every other external factor out of the way.

"Our profession is to play football. We have to be 100 per cent focused in doing that.

"We dug deep today, accepted our mistakes and focused on getting a job done today."