#YesYesYes

Yes! Yes! Yes! were the chants as DPMM FC steamrolled past basement club Harimau Muda in the S•League at the Hassanal Bolkiah Stadium last night. Steve Kean, DPMM FC’s head coach, was very proud of his lad for not just scoring but also keeping a clean sheet which they failed to do in the past three games.

DPMM FC welcomed back Subhi Abdillah in right back position and Aziz Tamit has been giving a first team role for the past few games taking over Shahrulrizal’s defensive duties and he has been adapting quite well and a great support to Boris Raspudic who has been ruthless in defence as well.

The 5-0 victory put DPMM FC back to the summit and amazingly, DPMM FC has scored 19 goals in the past seven games. A big shout must go the the 12th man which were the fans that turned up last night and it was perhaps the biggest attendance on home soil this season.

It was a pity that Harimau Muda had to face DPMM FC who are on a hot streak and the visitors are still chasing for a point in the 12-team competition. They were unfortunate when Azrun Nizam was given his marching orders for a professional foul on Roy O’Donovan which I thought was a bit harsh. However, I thought that didn’t affect the gameplay as DPMM FC already had a 3-0 goal cushion prior to the sending off.

Sairol Sahari who just celebrated his birthday two days ago was on the score sheet and he was very pleased with his performance and the goal was a belated birthday gift for him. He also thanked Joe Gamble for helping him through the injury recovery he has been sustaining.

It was good to see Roy O’Donovan scoring a brace once again and it shows what an important acquisition the club has made on the striker who is still recovering from a thumb injury. Rodrigo Tosi scored the 4th goal in the match after the red card incident and it was a great set piece of a free kick which, I believed, paid off from training. Tosi was doubtful earlier in the week with a calf strain but he managed to last 70 minutes on the pitch before being replaced by Shahrazen Said.

Shahrazen has yet to find the net but with more field presence, I am confident he will break his duck. Shahrazen, who has been DPMM FC’s top scorer in the past few seasons, has been giving the bench role as the partnership of Donovan and Tosi have been fruitful and promising. This shows the depth that DPMM FC squad has and this can prove to be an important difference as the season goes by.

“We showed tonight that we gave them all the respect but we are trying to impress by going higher up the pitch and get an early goal and the most important of us is to get a clean sheet. The defence starts from the front (Roy and Rodrigo) where they have to close the ball down enough and we have done that really well,” said Steve Kean.

He was still questioning himself to why the pace was slightly slower than the first half and maybe he said it could have been the sending off the middle of the second half. He instructed his players to keep switching play to tire their opponents and the tactic works.

DPMM FC now will face Hougang United FC in their next match. Hougang United broke Tampines Rovers undefeated streak last week but had a shock upset against Geylang International FC last night despite leading 2-0. Can DPMM FC carry their momentum when they face Hougang next week? We shall see.