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Dire situations require desperate measures. Back-ups came in the form of one who hasn't played for months and a sprightly fourteen year old. Opponent was an all Malay team, with some degree of nastiness in some.
Yet we ominously went in front when Brandon's long punt eluded the defence and Gan went through to lob over the keeper. Opponent that equalized and we stubbornly went ahead again against our natural instinct. Leng's superb cross from the right was expertly first-timed by Khong low past the keeper. As expected, opponent restored parity and both teams went into the break two apiece.
We were to pay dearly for the few opportunities not taken earlier. Two quick fire goals saw us going behind for the first time in the match. Is this what we asked for? Going behind seems such a natural thing to enable us to play properly. Sustained pressure led to us winning possession and Khong fed Guan to round the keeper. Simon then released Wah with a ball over the top and the former made no mistake slotting the ball home to put us on even terms. And the expected outcome was accomplished when Khong sent Woon galloping away down the right to deliver a precise cross for Wah to apply the coup de grace.
That's not all. What was also eye-catching was young trialist Alex Koh's composed performance. A few good crosses was supplemented with disciplined defensive cover when we lost possession. Chief scout may wish to take a look - player available for a free transfer. A few beers should buy the agent's favor :)
No, not that giant from Italy but our opponents must have fashioned themselves to be by virtue of their previous jersey :)
So, except for 1 who is 47-years old and is only 2 years older than most of us, the rest may not even have their age starting with 4. We felt they had misrepresented slightly and maybe that was why they weren't surprised that they stole an early lead on the 3rd minute when a few of our players hadn't even touched the ball. Their movement was swift and their football was pleasing to the eyes, and for a split second slower in movement, we tripped their forward just outside the box. For that, we paid a heavy price as their play-maker, No 16, curled in a beautiful shot from the resultant free-kick. This play-maker could have inflicted more damage on us with another free-kick from almost the same spot but it hit the side netting instead, leaving our shaken Brandon visibly relieved.
We slowly got to the grip of the match. Teck Chye and Simon broke up their play in the middle and the latter quickly released Teck Wah on the right, whose low cross into the box was forced into an own goal by Inter's defender under the pressure of Mike. The defender regretted falling to Mike's trap as he realised later that had he left Mike alone, he was actually harmless as proven later. Teck Wah set Mike through on a one-on-one but our physics specialist took too long to calibrate his momentum and calculate his force of inertia. With only the keeper to beat, Mike screwed the ball wide. And the Inter's defender then realised the trick :). The introduction of Weng Khong produced immediate impact as he intercepted a ball and headed back into the box for Teck Wah to shoot past Inter's keeper. Teck Wah could have notched a hat-trick in first half but his 2 other efforts kissed the horizontal instead. Kama had a header cleared off the line. Otherwise, we could have ended the half on much more than just 2-1.
We resumed the match with a simple game plan, i.e. shackle their No 16 and choke the supply line. Kama, and later Simon, worked their socks off to great effect. We began to gain more possession of the ball. Gan fended off the attention of their pesky left-back and produced a delightful cross that sailed beyond everyone's head and dropped nicely onto Weng Khong's path. His turn-and-half-volley produced the fruit and brought an immediate substitution by Inter - the goalkeeper changed his gloves! Wow! That was serious stuff!
Not to be outdone, Melvin showed Inter's No 16 that he could score directly from free-kick as well. At a much further distance from goal, about one-third length of the pitch, at 45 degree angle to goal, Melvin's shot produced that kind of flight which goalkeepers hate. And it went into the top left-hand corner of the goal, leaving their keeper wonder why he bothered to change the gloves. Mike then produced another of his tricks to fool Inter's defenders to notch goal No 5 for us. Doing his trademark seagull run towards goal and without looking at where the ball was landing, it gave their defenders false hope that it was leading to nowhere. But all the remote controls on the sideline cued Mike on where the ball was and more importantly, where Inter's keeper was standing. Mike dutifully lobbed the ball over him and we gave ourselves top mark for such team coordination :)
5-1! A convincing win and we hugely deserved the beer after the match.
0-2 down by the 15th minute, it could have been worse if referee had not ruled their 3rd goal offside, against another opponent of young players, Nitro FC..... things looked bleak. Not when you have experience and commitment to count on..... The last-minute unscheduled appearance of Teck Chye after some 'pitiful plea' by KH; the long-awaited comeback game for See Chiang; Weng Khong and Leo who are rarely deployed as strikers; willingness of the Rock to hold the defence line; the commanding performance of Brandon...these were just some of the factors contributing to this hugely satisfying comeback win! Of course, nobody should discount the usual dependable contribution from the other members of the elderly brigade...Simon, Yong Chua, Chung Wen, Ng, Chwee Leng, Mike, Woon and our hotshot Teck Wah.
After withstanding the early onslaught from Nitro, we settled down and began to carve out half chances. We managed to reduce the deficit just before the break when Leo slotted a through ball for Teck Chye to coolly beat Nitro's keeper. 1-2 at half-time.
We had the better of the possession in the 2nd half. Yong Chua, Teck Wah and See Chiang had chances to put the ball in the net but wasted all. At our rear end, Brandon bailed us out on a handful of occasions with his safe pair of hands. It took us a stroke of luck to equalise. Woon's shot in the crowded penalty box took a wicked deflection past the wrong-footed keeper. 2-2! With 7 minutes to spare, we continued to build on the momentum. Our winning goal could not have been more pleasing to the football purists. YC started the movement from our box and found See Chiang on the left. SC's ball into the box for our stand-in forward, Weng Khong, was well cushioned down by the latter and he set his strike-partner, Teck Wah, up for our hotshot to finish the job with his trademark left-foot volley to give Nitro's keeper no chance at all. A superb football movement leading to a great goal and a fantastic 3-2 win!
Rarely do I not enjoy a match because of a referee (as a benchmark, 'spider' is quite fine for that matter), but this one takes the cake for letting opponents have their cake and eat it. Remarkably partial, retaken set pieces, revolting!
A questionable decision to allow an offside Tusser Rangers player to score one on one against brandon led to us falling behind. We leveled through a well-worked free kick which allowed Guan to run in and side-foot home. We were then to rue the few clear cut chances that our better cutting edge created, going into the break at 1-1.
In the second half, two sucker punches, the first questionably offside again, saw us going behind and we never recovered. Credit to TR for their sound organization and playing simple football to avoid getting into trouble. Final score1-3.
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