Tanjong Pagar edged past Balestier Khalsa 4-3 at Toa Payoh Stadium on Saturday in the Premier League's second round of the regular season. The visitors took the lead through Y. Aizu before L. Vujanic's brace turned the match. Balestier fought back late but Tanjong Pagar held on despite a red card of their own.
B. Mamadou gave Balestier hope with an early strike in the eighth minute. To be fair, the home side looked dangerous, but Mamadou saw red just eight minutes later. That left the hosts chasing the game from the sixteenth minute. Aizu equalised in the thirty-fifth before Vujanic took over, scoring twice in quick succession on forty-ninth and fifty-sixth.
Substitutions began to shift momentum. S. Sazali came on for Balestier in the twenty-sixth, while Tanjong Pagar brought on Y. Aizu fifty-one minutes in. J. Gallagher joined the dismissal list for the hosts in the seventy-seventh. By then, the visitors were managing the game carefully, even as their own discipline began to fray.
F. Iyadh collected two yellow cards and a red in the eighty-sixth, leaving Tanjong Pagar with ten men. And here's the thing — the visitors didn't buckle. T. Matic slid one past Balestier in the eighty-ninth, then M. Kuzminski and B. Kopitovic traded strikes in stoppage time. The match ended 4-3 after Kopitovic's goal in the ninety-fourth minute.
Both sides finished with identical attack counts at 74, but the difference lay in efficiency. Balestier hit the target nine times with 39 per cent accuracy, while Tanjong Pagar managed 45 per cent. The visitors held 56 per cent possession and earned five corners to the hosts' nine. Both keepers made saves — five for Balestier, seven for Tanjong Pagar.
The result moves Tanjong Pagar to six points from two games, sitting fourth in the table. Balestier remain winless after three defeats, still sitting on zero points in seventh. It was a match decided by moments rather than dominance, and Tanjong Pagar had the sharper edge when it mattered most.