Hougang United FC

Hougang United FC

Full name	Hougang United
Nickname(s)	The Cheetah
Founded	1981
Ground	Hougang Stadium Hougang, Singapore (Capacity: 2,500)
Chairman	Bill Ng
Head Coach	Aide Iskandar
League	S.League
Home colours Away colours

Hougang United Football Club is a professional football club in Singapore's S.League. The club first made their debut in Singapore's S.League in 2006 under the name Sengkang Punggol Football Club. The club was a merger of two football clubs that previously played in the S.League – namely, Paya Lebar Punggol Football Club and Sengkang Marine Football Club. Together they formed Sengkang-Punggol Football Club. In 2011, the club rebranded themselves as Hougang United Football Club in order to identify themselves with the neighbourhood their stadium (Hougang Stadium) is located (Hougang New Town). The club's home stadium, Hougang Stadium, is also the home stadium for its predecessors, Paya Lebar Punggol FC and Sengkang Marine FC.

Sengkang Punggol finished runners-up in the inaugural Singapore League Cup competition in 2007.

S.League Record

• 1998 - Marine Castle United: 11th place (Wooden Spoonist)
• 1999 - Marine Castle United: 12th place (Wooden Spoonist)
• 2000 - Marine Castle United: 11th place
• 2001 - Marine Castle United: 11th place
• 2002 - Sengkang Marine: 8th place
• 2003 - Sengkang Marine: 8th place
• 2004 - did not take part
• 2005 - Paya Lebar Punggol: 10th place (Wooden Spoonist)
• 2006 - Sengkang Punggol: 11th place (Wooden Spoonist)
• 2007 - Sengkang Punggol: 11th place
• 2008 - Sengkang Punggol: 11th place
• 2009 - Sengkang Punggol: 10th place
• 2010 - Sengkang Punggol: 11th place

Singapore Cup Record

• 1998 - Marine Castle United: First Round
• 1999 - Marine Castle United: First Round
• 2000 - Marine Castle United: First Round
• 2001 - Marine Castle United: First Round
• 2002 - Sengkang Marine: 4th place
• 2003 - Sengkang Marine: First Round
• 2004 - did not take part
• 2005 - Paya Lebar Punggol: First Round
• 2006 - Sengkang Punggol: Quarter-finals
• 2007 - Sengkang Punggol: Quarter-finals
• 2008 - Sengkang Punggol: First Round
• 2009 - Sengkang Punggol: First Round
• 2010 - Sengkang Punggol: First Round

Singapore League Cup Record

• 2007 - Sengkang Punggol: Runners-up
• 2008 - Sengkang Punggol: First Round
• 2009 - Sengkang Punggol: First Round
• 2010 - Sengkang Punggol: 3rd place
• 2011 - Hougang United: Runners-up

History

Marine Castle United Football Club, one of Sengkang Punggol's predecessor clubs, was formed as in 1981 by residents of Marine Parade, with the initial aim of playing in 7-a-side tournaments, which were very popular at the time. The club's name arose after Newcastle United FC of England visited Singapore in 1981. With all the team's members being residents of Marine Parade fans of Newcastle United, they decided to name their club Marine Castle United FC. ^[1]

Marine Castle United FC was registered with the Singapore Registry of Society on the 19 October 1981. In 1982, a four-year youth development programme was drawn up, aiming to develop and produce the club's players from 1986 onwards. This plan proved to be a success as many players were selected to represent Singapore in various youth tournaments. The young squads went on to achieve some noteworthy results, including:

1. 1984 - National under-16, unbeaten up to quarter-finals
2. 1985 - National under-18, second round
3. 1986 - Champions of the Zulkifli Mohd Soccer Tournament
4. 1987 - FAS Single Knock-Out Tournament, unbeaten

Marine Castle's achievements at senior level had not been too impressive in the years leading to S.League's formation in 1995. The club applied to be one of the eight teams that would participate in the inaugural S.League, but was not selected by the Football Association of Singapore. Over the next two years, the club attempted to show skeptics that they had what it took to join Singapore's top league. They reached FA Cup semi-finals in 1995, become the National Football League's group champions in 1996, and were runners-up National Football League Division 1 in 1997.

Following this, Marine Castle United successfully applied to join the S.League in 1998. They became the eleventh team to join the S.League, together with Gombak United FC. However Marine Castle did not initially enjoy much S.League success. They finished bottom of the league in their first two seasons. In 2000 and 2001, they climbed up one spot to finished eleventh out of twelve teams, above Balestier Central FC and Woodlands Wellington FC respectively.

In 2002, Marine Castle FC changed its name to Sengkang Marine Football Club. The S.League wanted clubs to be closer to their heartlands and community. Marine Castle had been playing its S.League home games at the Hougang Stadium, and the change in name was made with the aim of reaching out more to fans in the nearby Sengkang area. That year, the team's performances on the pitch improved, and they finished the S.League season in eighth place, their highest ever finish.

In 2003, Sengkang Marine finished the league season in eighth place again, but was then forced to bow out of the league due to financial difficulties. Both Sengkang Marine and Jurong FC left the league after the 2003 season despite mid-table finishes as they could no longer afford to participate.

In 2005, Paya Lebar Punggol Football Club joined the S.League and finished tenth in its debut season. (Prior to joining the S.League, the team was previously a grassroots club known as Paya Lebar Kovan Football Club). Like Sengkang Marine FC before them, Paya Lebar Punggol FC played its S.League home games at the Hougang Stadium.

In 2006, Paya Lebar Punggol FC and Sengkang Marine FC decide to collaborate their resources and merge to form a club named Sengkang Punggol Football Club to play in the S.League. The newly-merged club finished in eleventh place in the 2006 S.League season.

Club Mascot

In 1998, when Marine Castle United joined the S.League, all clubs playing in the league were required to have an animal mascot to represent their team. Marine Castle chose a dolphin mascot.

Marine Castle chose the dophin because it is a highly intelligent sea mammal, capable of working singularly or as part of a team. It represents dexterity, fleetness and determination.^[1]

Marine Castle thus became the first S.League club to have a marine animal as its mascot. Paya Lebar Punggol followed by adopting a seahorse as its mascot. When the two clubs merged, it was decided that the dolphin should be the new club's mascot.

On the 1st January 2011, the chairman of what is then Sengkang Punggol Football Club, Mr. Bill Ng, announced the changes that begins the rewriting of another chapter of the football club. Along with a change of name to the present "Hougang United Football Club", the club mascot has been changed to Chester the Cheetah.

Hougang United FC Supporters Club

The Hougang United official fan club also known as the Hougang HOOLs was officially inaugurated on the 1st January 2011, just as the football club underwent a change of name (from Sengkang-Punggol Football Club to the present Hougang United Football Club).

The fan club is run by a passionate group of football fans who enjoy bringing the famous English football-stadium atmosphere to their own local football scene. In short, they are fans who appreciate the English football style of singing and chanting for 90 minutes for their Hougang United heroes.

Check out the Hougang Hools Gallery --> http://hougangunited.blogspot.com/p/hougang-hools.html

Sponsors

• Main Sponsor: None
• Kit Supplier: Mitre Sports International

Current Squad

As of 1 April 2011

Note: Flags indicate national team as has been defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player 1 GK Ridzuan Fatah Hassan 2 DF Lau Meng Meng 3 DF Syaqir Sulaiman 5 DF Shariff Abdul Samat (team captain) 6 DF Shahril Alias 7 DF Fathi Yunus 8 MF Azhar Sairudin 9 FW Diego Gama 10 MF Jordan Webb

No. Position Player 11 DF Fazli Jaffar 12 DF Faizal Amir 13 DF Ratna Suffian 15 GK Fadhil Salim 16 MF Basit Abdul Hamid 17 MF Sobrie Mazelan 18 FW Vitor 19 MF Carlos Alberto Delgado 20 MF Md Noor Ali

Prime League Squad

Note: Flags indicate national team as has been defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player 21 MF Aqhari Abdullah 22 GK Lutfi Abdul Razak 23 DF Sim Li Meng 24 DF Fazli Hisham 25 MF Zul Nor Farahin 26 FW Afiq Yahya 27 FW Fadzly Shah Jahan 28 DF Faiz Rahim 29 GK Fariz Zulhilmi 30 MF Naresh Sivam

No. Position Player 31 MF Ali Shaban 32 MF Saseetharan Kaleemuthu 33 MF Aziz Zainuddin 34 MF Shafiee Safari 35 DF Eddie Chang 36 MF Mamadou Diallo 37 FW Desmond Ang 38 MF Raymond Kwa 39 FW Nurhidayat Khamarudin 40 GK Ameerul Shafiq

Former Players

Sengkang Punggol

• Jonathan Angelucci (2006-07)
• Kim Grant (2006)
• Kenji Arai (2010)
• Hiroyuki Yamamoto (2008-09)
• Ricky Waddell (2006)
• Amos Boon (1999-10)
• Noh Rahman (2009)
• Indra Sahdan Daud (2009)

Sengkang Marine

• Daniel Hill (2002-05)
• Grant Holt (2002)
• James Morgan (2002)
• Jason White (2003), (14 goals)
• Kim See-Man (2000)

Marine Castle

• Doug Ithier (1999)
• Michael Currie (1999)
• Ian Gore (1998)
• Peter Anosike (1998-99)
• Nduka Ugbade (1998-99)

Footnotes

1. ^ ^{a b} "Overview/History". SengKang Punggol FC Official Website. http://www.spfc.com.sg/history.htm. Retrieved 2007-07-25. 

coaches:

External links

• Official Hougang United FC Website
• S.League website page on Hougang United FC