Match #8 (24 Feb 2013): Old School Rock n Roll Reigns Supreme

With a name like Santana, we were bracing ourselves for some Latin American samba from opponent but the old school rock-n-roll in us emerged triumph in this rather feisty encounter. Nowadays, opponents do not surprise us anymore if they are quicker to the ball, closes us down in a second, are more fleet-footed and twinkle-toed...and of course, are more inclined to show-boat. Veteran teams like us are rare to come by.

We carved out a few half chances and Simon had an effort kissing the horizontal in the first half. All came to nothing at the break, 0-0.

Santana then gifted us with three moments of horrendous defending and we ruthlessly punished them and richly reaped rewards out of them. While defending against a free-kick from Teck Chye, Santana's defender in the wall raised his arm to block Teck Chye's effort but the penalty decision was rather dubious as the wall was outside the box. Nevertheless, Teck Chye benefitted from the defender's moment of indiscretion and the referee's moment of ill-judgment and converted the spot kick. 1-0.

Kian Hwa, in his 3rd comeback match, came close on two efforts - a snap shot from outside the box that whisked past the left post and a lob over the keeper that went just over the bar. Then, the moment of god-send arrived when Santana's keeper poorly sent his goal-kick straight to KH, who composed himself to coolly despatch the ball into the open goal for a 2-0 lead before calling for an early retirement from the match. Chor Guan and See Chiang had further chances to put the issue beyond doubt but fluffed their opportunities. The moment of glory came from the other KH - Kok Hock, when he intercepted Santana's play from just after the mid-line and, spotting the keeper out of position, whacked in a ferocious left-footed long-range shot that went beyond the back-pedalling keeper. 3-0.

At our rear end, the defending was stout and made life difficult for Santana. Gan, standing in goal, made a couple of fine blocks with his feet when facing one-on-one with Santana's strikers. In the dying moment, Santana could have scored a consolation goal but when their striker rounded Gan and could have shot at the open goal, but instead indulged in some one-man-ship and showing off his twinkle-toes. Our defenders closed him down to deny him that wee bit of a consolation.

3-0 was the final score.

Match #7 (17 Feb 2013): We Spanked The Willy Dilly Dally Billy

We simply detest teams that are tardy and have no basic courtesy to respect their opponents. So, Billy, comprising a bunch of willies except for their No 4 who is a wise man, dilly-dally strolled in despite already 15 minutes late. We were imposing in the opening 20 minutes with Simon's long-range effort from a free-kick hitting the goal frame and Woon unable to capitalise on an open opportunity at the far post before Teck Wah opened the account with a quickly taken free kick. 1-0.

But 20 minutes of horrific play by our custodian gifted them 2 goals, both from free-kicks. 1-2. He almost made it a hat-trick of comical errors by dashing off his line but misjudged the ball. If not for a fine block by our defender, Billy would have extended the score-line. A fortuitous penalty awarded to us enabled Teck Wah to notch his 2nd goal and put things all-squared before the break.

Billy scored their 3rd goal early in 2nd half but Gan equalised soon after when he powered in a header from Teck Chye's calibrated corner. From then on, we surged ahead. Kok Hock put us in the lead after Chor guan found him with a pin-point long pass from our half and Kok Hock lobbed the ball over the keeper. 4-3. Incessant pressure from our frontline forced them to play the ball in their backline and Gan pounded on their defender's poor control of the ball to place it past their keeper. 5-3.

Kian Hwa, slowly making his comeback, scored his 2nd goal in two successive matches after Gan intelligently shielded the ball from Billy's defender and allowed KH to have a shot at goal. 6-3. Another Simon's trademark long-range effort from a free-kick skidded off Gan's head and found the net, 7-3.

It could have been more as Gan had an effort that hit the bar and Woon's headed goal was disallowed for an infringement.

Match #6 (8 Feb 2013): Winning streak ended

Pit a bunch of mostly mid-40s against a bunch of mid-20s, what do u expect? But we weren't steamrolled over. We demonstrated our tenacity against SMU Alumni, although we couldn't square up against their energy, stamina and vitality. We just couldn't play our usual game due to their hard running and pressing. And the heavy pitch did us further disservice. All 5 goals conceded were soft and could have been avoidable if we had played a simpler game. We amply displayed our fight-back from 0-3 down to level the match at 3-3 but in the last 10 minutes, we lost our concentration and conceded 2 needless goals.

KH, forced into action to address some on-the-pitch negativity, scored on his long awaited comeback but it wasn't an eventual happy ending. Tang brothers scored to level the score but it was all in vain eventually.

Our spirited comeback did scare them. 3-5 loss but no shame.

Match #5 (3 Feb 2013): Really Hard-Fought Narrow 2-1 Win

DFC, despite having essentially only 11 players, made us sweat and toll for this narrow win. They demonstrated again how nice it was to be young and full of energy. They were 2 steps faster to everything. We could have been punished in 1st half but they were short of luck in converting their 3 golden opportunities in our box. At the other end, Teck Chye's individual brilliance weaved through a couple of DFC's defenders before netting our opening goal. DFC equalised early in 2nd half. Our backline had no answer to their pacy and strong forward and he toe-poked his way to slip the ball through Brandon's grasps. But we restored our lead a minute later. Our front pair of Chor Guan and Teck Wah combining well for the latter to whip in a half-volley. Things were evenly matched thereafter and we held on to preserve our winning streak.