Match #31 (22 Aug 10): Another narrow win over Old SJI

Rarely do we get opponents older than us and when we had today, we failed to capitalise sufficiently. Perhaps we find the field a tad larger than the usual SSC ones and hence lacked some cohesion. Nevertheless, we went 1 up in the first half, a clinical finish from Gan. Stretched the lead early in the second half with Chye's assured penalty. Thereafter, Old SJI with nothing to lose, kept the ball well and scored with a thumping effort from just outside the box. We held on for a 2-1 win, the third time in a row we had to hang in there.

Match #30 (15 Aug 10): Marine Sunday Held On To A Narrow 1-0 Win

Whilst it was uncharacteristic of us to throw away a 3-0 lead last week, it was unusual of us this week that we were able to hold on to an early goal for a narrow 1-0 win over Shades of Blue. Credit to our defenders - Chung Wen, Leo, Ng, Kok Hock and anchored by the Rock - for repelling SoB, which clearly enjoyed the majority of possession. Brandon saved us on a couple of occasions and SoB's poor finishing was their biggest culprit in not winning this match. Teck Wah notched the early within 5 minutes of the match. And that was it for us.

Match #29 (7 Aug 10): Marine Sunday Given Hell by Dell

The guys must be glad that it was timely that KH relinquished or, depending on which version of the story you choose to believe, had been relived of the on-pitch captaincy. Throwing away a healthy half-time 3-0 lead to barely survive the match with a 3-3 draw, one needs no imagination to anticipate what would have come out from KH's acidic tongue. But the team is now blessed with a cool head in the mould of The Rock, who calmly claimed that having assumed the armband after a long period of absence, he thought he was skipper only for the 1st Half. Now, that was the utlimate art of leadership :)

The scoreline served to reiterate the importance of midfielders to track back to defend. We scored our goals through our left-sided players - KH (2) and his replacement, Teck Wah in the 1st half. Each time, Dell's right midfielder failed to track back to cover KH or Teck Wah. Though Kok Hock had a large part to account for Dell's equalising goal after he lost possession at the mid-line, it might have been different if KH had tracked back to block Dell's scorer as the latter pulled wide right to receive the through ball before shooting from a tight angle to beat Brandon. Instead, KH was guilty of ball-watching.

Scintillating football in the first 40 minutes of the match. Thereafter, complacency set in and we were duly punished by the fervent effort of Dell. Within 5 minutes after the break, Dell notched a couple of goals, courtesy of our players in the midst of their late afternoon siesta. They thoroughly deserved to win the match but Brandon's brilliant reflex save at the dying seconds of the match kept the score respectable for us.

Match #28 (31 July 10): A Futsal 7 - 4 Scoreline!

Whenever we conceded 4 goals this season, we lost. It was thus rare indeed that we conceded 4 this time but walked away winning. However, if we had played for another 10 minutes, Mainland Chinese might have reversed the score.  It was quite a team effort. I meant getting the players. With only 9 players including a guest 2 days before the match, the team chipped in. Brandon offered to do his Ashley Cole/Glen Johnson acts, Mike unearthed Samuel as keeper and Bernard, who used to guest-play for us many years ago, Teck Chye brought in Eddie from Galacticos, and Rock recalled Kwok Khuen out of retirement. In the end, we had 14.

1H was durian-harvesting season, largely due to Mainland Chinese's atrocious goalkeeping. A miscued cross from KH dropped into the net with the keeper hopelessly out of position. That opening goal said so much of our luck. Mike then got ahead of the static keeper to nod in the ball at near post, courtesy of the in-swinging corner from KH. Weng Khong brilliantly ran onto a through ball to beat the keeper for goal No 3 and Teck Chye scored his 3rd goal in 3 successive matches, a delicate chip over the stranded keeper. Guest player Bernard walloped in our 5th goal. Mainland Chinese's 1st goal owed it to the sympathetic referee who refused to rule an obvious offside. 5-1 at Half-time.

We thought it would be a breeze in the 2H, especially when Simon capitalised on their horrendous defending to put the ball into the open goal from long range for No 6. Mainland Chinese reduced the deficit to 6-2 but Simon quickly restored the 5-goals margin when he converted a square pass from KH. 7-2. Mike, for all his good work, was however remembered for the miss of the season by a margin....just imagine, you all know there is a high fence behind the goal post. KH's square pass beat the keeper and reached Mike. 6 yards from open goal and yet, Mike scooped the ball not just over the goal post but over the fence behind the goal post. Now, you can imagine how wide the margin is :)

Mainland Chinese finished strongly towards the end, scoring 2 goals and piling pressure onto us with their stepped-up effort. It was too late for them though. A seemingly comfortable winning margin, the last 10 minutes were, however, not exactly comfortable to us.