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ESPNsoccernet: ASEAN Championship | |
SINGAPORE, January 15 (Asean Football Championship) Singapore striker Noh Alam Shah may have kept his cool in scoring seven goals against Laos on Monday but he appeared to be far less at ease later as he tried to put his feat into words.
The 26-year-old set an Asean Football Championship record with his seven-goal haul as the defending champions routed the Indochinese side 11-0 at the National Stadium to move to the top of Group B on goal difference. 'I feel shocked,' said the quiet-spoken Tampines Rovers hitman, who has been hampered by an ankle injury recently. 'After a few months out of action, I think that this is my best ever performance. I've never managed to do something like this before. 'But it all seems to be coming together at just the right time, not just for me but for the whole team.' Alam Shah scored twice in the opening half before finding the net five times after the break as the Lions took advantage of the tiring Laos defence to bag eight second-half goals. 'I have to give it to my team-mates because a lot of my goals were tap-ins or easy goals,' said the striker. 'The way that they ran and worked to set up the goals was tremendous. 'It's not all about myself because actually it's also about the hard work of the other players.' Having completed the scoring with an emphatic scissors kick in stoppage time, Alam Shah admitted that he was almost willing the ball not to go in by the end. 'I was almost hoping that the ball wouldn't go in because I felt sorry for the Laos players. But today was just my day and the ball flew in.' Singapore coach Radojko Avramovic was understandably pleased with the professional performance turned in by his side. 'Of course I am very happy. I thought it was very lucky in a way that we managed to score so many goals because towards the end of the game, Laos were physically down and couldn't cope with our players,' said the Serb. 'I think it's good that the team scored goals and that we had a lot of players scoring. 'Khairul Amri in particular has shown that he is an important player in this team and that he can provide the chances as well as score goals. 'Overall, the players have done a good job and all credit to them for this result.' With Laos head coach Saythong Syphasay skipping the post-match press conference, it was left to assistant coach Soutsakhon Oudomphet to make sense of the second-biggest defeat in Asean Football Championship history, surpassed only by Indonesia's 13-1 victory against the Philippines in 2002. 'It was a very difficult game because Singapore were physically stronger and fitter than us,' he said. 'We also had problems with our fitness late in the game as our defenders were carrying minor injuries and got tired. 'It just goes to show the difference between our team and teams like Singapore because they have professional players while we only have an eight-team league that is non-professional and at a level that is lower than elsewhere.'