One of the S. League's most exceedingly terrible ever runs arrived at an end on Wednesday night, when bottom-of-the-table Harimau Muda B crushed Woodlands Wellington 1-0 at Pasir Gudang Stadium.
Ramzi Sufian's 58th minute strike was sufficient to bring to an end a shocking run of 10 straight thrashings that started from the opening round of the competition.
But how awful was Harimau Muda B's 10-match losing streak?
A record-breaking number of terrible defeats. It is the most noticeably awful opening season form of a returning S. League club in the 18-year history of the competition.
Actually, the club broke the record of a 9-match losing streak of Tanjong Pagar in 2004.
However, the Jaguars had broken their record in 2004 after managing an opening run of 8 straight defeats in 2003. That year, the Jaguars finished 10th in a 12-team league.
Yet the inconveniences tormenting the club were evident then as Tanjong Pagar hauled out of the S. League from 2005, and just came back six years after.
Harimau Muda B, nonetheless, can inhale a sigh of fresh air after putting an end to their run of 10-match defeat.
Finally tasting their sweet victory on their 11th match; the club was able to somehow avoid breaking the record for the worst ever opening season form.
The tragic honour fits in with Payar Lebar Punggol FC who hold the record for the most exceedingly bad start to a season, losing an enormous 15 consecutive games in 2005. Their hopeless run finished when Courts Young Lions were held to a 2-2 draw, with future naturalized Singapore internationals Shi Jiayi and Itimi Dickson on the scoresheet for the Cubs that day.
Payar Lebar, who experienced a merger and a few name changes through the years and are presently known as Hougang United were making their introduction that year.
They in the end lurched through the season and happened to lose 25 of the 27 league matches that season. Apart from the draw against Young Lions, they dealt with a 3-2 win against Geylang United (now known as Geylang International) with Jafri Hashim finishing his hat-trick with the winning goal pressed towards the injury time.
The four points they accumulated throughout the season was also the worst tally ever for a team in the S. League.
In any case they did abstain from being remembered for all time as having the most noticeably awful defence.
The Woodlands Wellington team of 2011 surrendered a huge 92 goals in one whole league campaign despite the fact that, that was for a 33-round season.
So how faraway are Harimau Muda B from breaking any of the remaining records?
The win against the Rams keeps them at the foot of the table still, however they now have three points from 11 matches, with 31 goals surrendered and nine scored. Still, there are 16 rounds of matches to be played.
For Woodlands, they will need to fight with being the only team to not beat Razip Ismail's side this season, and need to hold up for their chance at Woodlands Stadium until the end of August.
Harimau Muda B’s next match will be against Tanjong Pagar United on May 16 at the Queenstown Stadium.
Catat Ulasan
We welcome constructive comments.
Note: Comments using foul language, being disrespectful to others or otherwise violating what we believe are common sense standards of discussion will be deleted.