And perhaps unfairly to the players who fought tooth and nail in the entertaining affair, the final was overshadowed by Tampines’ gaffe, which is expected to see them eventually forfeit the match with a 3-0 scoreline.

According to the Singapore Cup regulations, “all clubs shall ensure that a minimum of four Singaporean players are on the pitch at all times, except in the case of a Singapore player who is sent off by the referee for either an indirect of direct red card”.

While the Stags had started with five locals in the match, they fell foul of the rule in the second half.

They still met the minimum quota after they replaced Raoul Suhaimi with Australian Dylan Fox in the 61st minute, but got into trouble 20 minutes later when they yanked Glenn Kweh and Joel Chew for Faris Ramli and former Japan midfielder Yuki Kobayashi respectively.

This left them with just three local players: Goalkeeper Syazwan Buhari, defender Irfan Najeeb and Faris.

Two minutes later, Tampines took off Japanese midfielder Kohya Koyama for Singaporean Ong Yu En, but the damage was done. The Cup rules state that the penalty for fielding an ineligible player is for the match to be “awarded to the opposing non-infringing team”.

Post-match, Tampines coach Noh Rahman said: “The original plan was to sub out Kohya, but at the last minute, Joel was saying he had a problem, so in the split second, we didn’t really think about it and it was an honest mistake. I take responsibility for that.

“(After 90 minutes), you could see the (mental) state of the players, they were a little bit not sure, and it changed the momentum of the game. We have got a lot of football to be played in the AFC Champions League 2, the Shopee Cup and the league, so we should stay as a team and fight together.”