Balestier Khalsa missed a golden chance to climb to second place in the standings following a sensational comeback by Courts Young Lions. The home side forced a 2-2 draw after trailing by two goals in a thrilling Great Eastern Yeo's S.League clash at the Jalan Besar Stadium on Friday night.
The Tigers were coasting with goals from Zulkiffli Hassim and Miroslav Kristic. However, goals from Jordan Webb and Suria Prakash orchestrated the home side's heroic comeback.
Signs of future wastefulness were visible for the visitors in the sixth minute when Ignatius Ang raced down the left wing before sending in a low cross to Zulkiffli, only for the makeshift forward to sidefoot wide off the post.
Zulkiffli, however, made amends 11 minutes later when he finished off Kristic's pinpoint ball across the box to give Balestier the lead.
The Young Lions fell further behind in the 23rd minute when Ang fooled two players before picking out Kristic in the box. The Croatian chested it down and slotted it home to make it 2-0 for Krajlevic's side.
In typical Young Lions fashion, the U23 side refused to cave in and was rewarded in the 43rd minute when Jordan Webb reduced the deficit from the spot.
An Adam Swandi ball over the top of the defence found Sherif El-Masri who raced towards goal, only to be brought down by goalkeeper Zaiful Nizam in the box. Webb stepped up and made it 2-1 with a confident penalty.
The Young Lions came out for the second period with renewed enthusiasm and were almost rewarded in the 49th minute when a corner from Sherif saw Zaiful pull off a double save from Shameer Aziq and Webb.
There was drama at the other end in the 64th minute when Emir Lotinac's through ball found Kristic who beat goalkeeper Rudy Khairullah. However, Fadli Kamis came up with the goalline clearance.
This gave the home side a huge boost and they duly leveled the game with 17 minutes remaining. Substitute Suria Prakash beat the offside trap to finish with aplomb after Webb played him in with a majestic lob.
Young Lions even missed a gilt-edged opportunity to secure all three points when Webb could only direct Adam's free kick wide with two minutes remaining.
It was down to Igor Cerina with the final chance of the game right at the death. But the Balestier defender failed to convert Zulkiffli's cut-back off a Kristic free kick as referee Muhd Syahir blew the full time whistle.
Young Lions coach Juergen Raab admitted his team were not up to the mark but was pleased at the point.
"We have to be happy with one point." said the German. "We were poor in the first half but in football sometimes teams don't deliver. We have to be very happy that we didn't concede a third and that fantastic pass from Adam to Sherif, which brought us back.
"We tried to change things in the second half and we rose to reach the standard of the last few games.
"Finally, we managed to equalise with a very nice goal from a good run from Suria and a nice pass from Jordan. So that is good."
His counterpart Kraljevic was critical of his team's failure to convert their chances.
"We are very disappointed," he said. "We were very comfortable after being 2-0 up. Then we conceded a goal. Our opponents got confident and we had a few chances that we failed to capitalise on. Our finishing was just not up to the mark."
The 2014 coach of the year was also unimpressed by the Young Lions' new tactic of trying to keep possession and claimed that the U23 side were going "nowhere".
"We knew they will play this way but what use is possession?" asked Kraljevic. "They passed the ball everywhere and I wanted them to play like that. If you ask Jose Mourinho, he will tell you possession alone counts for nothing."
Courts Young Lions: Rudy Khairullah (GK), Fadli Kamis, Sheikh Abdul Hadi (C), M, Anumanthan (Faris Azienuddin 68'), Farhan Rahmat, Ammirul Emmran, Adam Swandi, Shameer Aziq (Suria Prakash 68'), Jordan Webb, Sherif El-Masri, Danial Razali (Amy Recha 45')
Balestier Khalsa: Zaiful Nizam (GK)(C), Yusiskandar Yusop, Hanafi Salleh, Igor Cerina, Ahmad Syahir, Emir Lotinac, Poh Yi Feng (Ridwan Jamil 59'), Tarik Cmajcanin (Jonathan Xu 79'), Ignatius Ang (Hazzuwan Halim 72'), Zulkiffli Hassim, Miroslav Kristic