Match #34 (12 Sep 10): MS More Than Took The Sting Out Of Venom

With a team formed by some ex-Commandos, in their 20s, a Scorpion logo on the chest and ferociously named Venom, we braced ourselves up for some hard time. Nobody would have bet a cent that we could lead at the break, let alone a commanding 4-0 lead. That we did, but after a couple of close shaves. 1st, Chung Wen produced the unthinkable come-from-behind goal line clearance after a communication breakdown between Brandon and our centre defenders allowed their 2 forwards to walk the ball into the net. When it seemed all too easy, Chung Wen denied them that glory with a determined rush-back to boot the ball away. Then Brandon recovered from a wrong-footed position to dive and palm away a certain own goal from Chor Guan. 

After surviving these early scares, we took control. Our break came courtesy from an own goal by Venom's right back, who headed a harmless cross past his keeper. Audi Goh posted a near-post glancing header from Mike's perfect cross from the right to bring us into a 2-0 lead. Mike then headed a long-punt from Brandon onto the path of KH, who then crossed in for Audi to nod in his 2nd of his 3 goals. Mike deservedly got his goal after some good work from Teck Chye, who robbed the ball and set Mike free. Mike skilfully placed the ball past Venom's keeper into the far post. 4-0 at the break. 

We could have gone 5-0 up early in the 2nd half but after beating the offside and set himself free, KH squandered the easy one-on-one, when Teck Chye was a much better option to convert the opportunity. Venom too had their lack of luck to curse for. They came close on numerous occasions but somehow missed the goal mouth by mere inches. Quick successive injuries to our dependable sweeper, Chor Guan and his stand-in, Mark, presented Venom with a flicker of hope. With both out of action, Venom stole 2 quick goals back to bring them into contention. But Audi put the issue beyond doubt when a nice one-two with KH presented him with a perfect opportunity to plant a firm shot past their keeper to top off his glorious week. 5 - 2!

Match report #33 (5 Sep 10): Strange to comeback frantically against OVA

How often do we get to play teams older than us and what's the probability that they have to play with 10 for much of the match? If that was amazing, what's more astonishing was the way we contrived to go 1-3 behind after drawing 1-1 at half time. Doubtless OVA had their imposing striker to thank for his 1-man 5-star contribution plus luck on their side when the ref awarded a soft penalty for them to go 2-1 up. We were punished for a tentative display that lacked ideas in attack against a deep-seating defence or was guilty of trying to play elaborate passes when simple ones will do - which explains how our goals came about. Chye's penalty and straight-from-corner goals sandwiched Kok Hock's header off Chye's corner delivery. All from dead ball situations that sum up a rather static, unsatisfying 3-3 draw.

Match #32 (28 Aug 10): Narrow 4-3 Win over Dons

The scoreline truly reflected a keenly-contested encounter between 2 "arch rivals" that know each other just too well. We recoverd from 2 goals down to lead 3-2 before gifting Dons an equaliser. But we squeezed out the last ounce of energy to nip in the winning goal late in the game. Without doubt, the 4 goal-scorers, namely Gan, Kian Hwa, Simon and Chor Guan, and the key assist-provider, Teck Wah (3 out of 4 goals came from his assists), enjoyed the limelight. However, one player played a significant role in our fightback goal and the winning goal - our left fullback, See Chiang. On each occasion, he not only broke up Dons' attack down their right flank but won the ball cleanly to turn it into our offensive moves.