Match #4 (23 Jan 2010): Consecutive clean sheet! 5-0 Trouncing of Air Force veteran red team

Too bad, I stopped the MoTM, it deprived Mike from a deserving MoTM. Then again, thank goodness, I stopped the MoTM, otherwise everyone would have been pulling his hair agonising over the choice between Mike and Gan. With only 11 players to start and lacking the usual regulars, both had to play out of their usual positions - Mike as the lone striker and Gan as the attacking midfielder. Boy, both stood up to be counted when it mattered. Gan was particularly menacing and at his striking best, notching an impressive hat-trick, 2 of which came from the assists of the hardworking Mike, who worked his socks off to pile tremendous pressure on their defenders. And he rounded up our scoreline with our 5th goal - he richly deserved that! Our opening goal came from our guest player, Woon. Given his lively play down the right flank, he would certainly give Teck Wah a run for the money. Impressive scoreline, impressive performance, and a clean sheet, thanks to Seah who produced a world-class mid-air dive to tip a ferocious shot over the bar in the opening 5 minutes of the match.

Match #3 (17 Jan 2010): Cleansheet! 2 - 0 against Shades of Blue

Thanks to some superb goalkeeping of Seah, who kept us in the game in the 1st half with 3 great saves, we managed to record the 1st clean sheet of the season, and our first in a long while. The big pitch and the morning sun were expected to be our biggest obstacles but the numbers, with a turnout of 16 players, helped. Teck Wah could have grabbed a hat-trick but had to settle for just 1. A fine move involving hard running of KH, a simple return pass from Simon, a screw-up cross from the overlapping KH, an intelligent dummy by Gan, and Teck Wah brilliantly finished it off with a first-time left-footed delicate shot that hoisted the ball over the keeper. Weng Khong then won the ball in the middle and laid it down the right for Teck Wah, whose first-time side-footed cross carried just enough weight to reach his brother across the penalty box. Teck Chye showed his left foot is just as lethal with a sublime chip over the keeper. 2 - 0.

Shades of Blue almost narrowed the deficit in the 2nd half when their right wing-back hit a Roberto Carlos-like freekick from the right flank but the ball cannoed off the foot of the right post. We dominated the game but we did no further than the 2 goals scored in the 1st half. 2 - 0.

Match #2 (9 Jan 2010): Won 3 - 2 Agst China All-Stars

A hard-fought win but not after some running rings by a bunch of young, energetic, skilful mainland Chinese. Chor Guan put us 1-0 up at half-time with a well-taken penalty. China All-Stars reversed the deficit into 2-1 lead with their incessant seige on our goal area in the 2nd half. But we made it count when it mattered, Teck Wah's header equalised for us after connecting a superb cross from Weng Khong from the right. Then Simon punished their communication breakdown in the defence and produced a delicate chip over their tentative goalkeeper for our winning goal.

It's confirmed that natural pitch is no longer suitable for us from the following observations:

1) Gan missed a glaring sitter in the 1st half

2) KH couldn't cross for nuts

3) Chwee Leng kept falling over himself in the 2nd half though he blamed it on his new boots

4) lastly, our Rock completely missed clearing a direct ball....

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Rock's comments:

Hahaha.... correspondingly

1. In football, even Drogba has missed such a sitter. With a little bit more of self-belief, the form & flow should come for Gan...

2. The pre-match talk was a motivational prep-talk which actually materialised into pretty good runs down the flank by KH with 'acceptable' crosses or clever passes back to Wah for more decent crosses & you see, that actually works!

3. You see, Leng is a sprinter & he needs flat ground to transport himself around.. hence the numerous stumbles :-)

4. Lastly, guess... KH meant that Rock did such a good 'dummy' it not only fooled our opponents but our own players as well... hahaha...

Match #1 (2 Jan 2010): 2 - 4 Loss against (who else but) Babylon

One-and-a-half months of no football clearly showed in everyone's play this morning. Rusty, poor touches, lack of fitness, poor positional play were all clearly in display in the 1st half, despite Babylon having only 8 players for some 1st 15 minutes. Yet we couldn't capitalise on the numerical advantage. Yet they still managed to snatch a lead with a fine individual effort. Then their striker outjumped our guest player, Tim to end the 1st-half 2-0.

Mike reduced the defict through a goal-mouth scramble but they quickly restored their 2-goals advantage with another individual effort. Weng Khong, Teck Wah and Kian Hwa conjured up our 2nd goal to make it 3-2. Despite running on half tanks, having played their 3rd match in 3 days, they are still far superior in fitness. A 3rd piece of individual skills produced their 4th goal and the match ended 4-2.

Still, it was a good effort from us. We remain hard to beat for them!