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A late equaliser spared Hougang United's blushes on Thursday night as they salvaged a draw against Singapore Recreation Club (SRC) in the TNP League Cup 2015 at the Hougang Stadium. The Great Eastern Yeo's S.League side narrowly avoided the ignominy of losing to their National Football League (NFL) Division 1 opponents after Kenneth Chang popped up with an 89th-minute strike to break SRC's hearts. Nonetheless, T. Ramoo's charges still created history by becoming the first NFL team to register a League Cup point, since they were allowed to join the competition for the first time last year. All the drama came in the final 30 minutes of the game, which had been a drab affair before that. The first half saw the Cheetahs register only one shot on target, as Vuk Sotirovic's fierce shot on the turn from 25 yards forced Zainol Gulam into a flying save. A glaring lack of creativity and poor deliveries in the box did not help the hosts' cause, while former Singapore internationals Shariff Samat and Precious Emuejeraye put up a solid performance at the heart of SRC's defence. Hougang began the second half with more intensity as Fazli Jaffar and Fairoz Hasan lashed efforts off target, but they were given a real jolt four minutes past the hour mark. A SRC corner was not cleared properly and former Hougang man Firman Hanif put the ball back into the box for Precious, who headed it across from the right. With the goal gaping and no one near him, Michael Hemmingway easily nodded in from close range to spark wild celebrations. The disbelief in the Hougang camp was palpable and they tried to rally, but again it was lacklustre as Muhaymin Salim and Kunihiro Yamashita both put tame headers wide. Nurhilmi Jasni's low drive from the edge of the box in the 84th minute looked destined to ripple the net, but substitute goalkeeper Al-Aminnur Ibrahim got down superbly to push it away despite being partially unsighted. With time rapidly running out and SRC dropping deep to hold out for a win, Salim Moin's charges began to desperately punt the ball forward. It paid off in the closing stages when SRC failed to deal with a free kick delivery. The loose ball fell to centre-back Chang, who coolly drilled it home from eight yards to snatch a late point for the home team. The result saw them qualify for the semifinals, although Geylang's 4-2 victory over DPMM in the concurrent game meant even a loss to SRC would have seen them progress. While Salim was happy that his target for the team had been achieved, he was naturally displeased with nearly getting embarrassed by their semi-professional opponents. "I feel very disappointed because my team were too complacent and too casual after showing me good performances in the first two matches," he said after the game. "This is where I say they have to realise and understand the importance of professionalism... hopefully now the next step is for the players have to pull up their socks... we want to qualify for the final." SRC team manager S. Mogan hailed his team's "very good achievement" and stated the experience gained from the 4-0 and 5-0 defeats to Geylang and DPMM helped them pull off the result. "All the credit should go to the boys, they really played well today," he reflected. "We came here [aiming] to do an upset... it is an encouraging result for us to move on in the NFL." Hougang United: Ridhuan Barudin, Faizal Amir, Kenneth Chang, Kunihiro Yamashita, Lau Meng Meng, Nurhilmi Jasni, Fairoz Hasan (C) (Tengku Mushadad 71'), Atsushi Shimono, Fazli Jaffar, Diego Gama (Muhaymin Salim 38'), Vuk Sotirovic (Carlos Delgado 54'). Singapore Recreation Club: Zainol Gulam (Al-Aminnur Ibrahim 81'), Zulkarnain Malik, Shariff Samat, Precious Emuejeraye, Faliq Sudhir (C), Samuel Balls, Firman Hanif, Nurul Islam (Khyruddin Khalid 76'), Anders Aplin, Nazirul Islam, Michael Hemmingway.
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