Marine Sunday put in an unbelievable jaw-dropping performance in the last 30 minutes of the match to snatch an incredible 5 – 4 win against Daniel Old Boys (DOB) after it had seemed long gone for us when we were trailing at 1 – 4. The pendulum swing from one end to the other throughout the match, it started with a 1 – 0 lead for us before DOB surged to a commanding 4 – 1 margin, and then we forced the scale to tip in our favour by the time the final whistle went. DOB walked off the pitch applauding our spirit, wondering where our reserves of spirit and belief came from. Putting the indifferent first half performance aside, this had got to be one of our most satisfying wins.
DOB comprise a handful of veterans with a great sense of football, augmented by a handful of youngsters who have quite a bit to learn from their mature teammates. But we did fall prey to one of their experienced veterans, No 16, who orchestrated the midfield with such ease and grace that, I hate to admit it, it was quite a joy to watch him play. Among their handful of youngsters, the one operating on the left midfield was, despite his rotund size, lightning quick. No 16 called the shots and this youngster applied the finishing to deadly effect. We started confidently enough to control the pace. We threatened in less than a minute from the kick-off. Teck Wah nodded down Kian Hwa’s cross onto the path of Weng Khong but the latter thought he was a rugby player and ballooned his shot way over the bar. Kian Hwa continued to be lively on the left but his final crosses into the box were short of any quality to find his fellow striker partner, Teck Wah. Impatient with the poor service from KH, Teck Wah urged for bombarding from the rear and one such punting ball from Chung Wen allowed the former to race through. Our top striker did no wrong with a left-foot lob over the onrushing keeper for our opening goal. 1 – 0 and the match was not even 10 minutes old. Things seemed rosy for us but DOB had other ideas. They punished our sloppy possession of the ball and we almost committed a kamikaze.
See Chiang, filling in as stopper, took a second too long to clear the ball and was duly robbed by DOB’s forward. Though See Chiang did well to win back the ball, he chose to pass inward to Melvin instead of a simple clearance forward. Melvin’s touch was just as heavy as his bodyweight and that gave the away the ball the 2nd time in a space of less than 30 seconds. DOB’s forward surged into the box with the giveaway ball and he apparently tripped over a sea of legs. We were left fuming by the referee as he pointed to the spot. The decision appeared dubious as the offence, an alleged nudge from behind by Melvin on this forward, took place just outside the box. The referee further added fuel to the fire when he failed to spot DOB’s rotund youngster advancing into the box before the spot kick was taken and he duly scored from the rebound after Brandon brilliantly dived to his left to block the penalty. The ball spun to Brandon’s right and before our custodian could recover, this DOB youngster was already right in front of the open goal mouth to tap in the rebound, 1 – 1.
Like a bloodhound, DOB sensed that we were not as cool as our jerseys portray us to be. Their No 16 operated his midfield like a maestro that not even our 2 tenacious midfielders – Mark and Simon could seem to get near him. More misery ensued. A corner sent long beyond the far past appeared harmless but both See Chiang and Simon failed to spot another of their veteran players, No 20, lurking at the far end and he instinctively hit a hard first-time shot to give them a 2 – 1 lead. It was a brilliant goal, given the positioning of the player, his technique in hitting the ball and best of all, it was from a very tight angle despite having 2 of our players in front of him.
Ng then overlapped to support an attack and shot well from outside the box but DOB’s keeper was just as confident in gathering the shot. The referee further infuriated us with another contentious decision when he penalised us for a soft challenge by Mike on DOB’s player in the box. This was after Mike gave away the ball cheaply on the left and in his earnest effort to win back the ball, his challenge in the box was unfairly punished. Another penalty, and another brilliant block by Brandon who dived to his right this time round, another jump-the-gun run into the box by the DOB’s youngster to react to the rebound but the outcome was not to be same – his left-foot shot went wide off the right post. We were let off the hook but it was not for long.
A moment of defensive indiscipline presented DOB with the 3rd goal. Our defensive trio of Chor Guan, Chwee Leng and Ng advanced too far upfront to support the attack and consequently exposed a gulf at the back. The move broke down and DOB counter-attacked with pace, leaving our sole defender, Weng Kwan, with the unenviable task to face DOB’s 3 forwards. They beat Weng Kwan with ease but Brandon came off his line well to block the one-on-one shot. The ball fell at the feet of the rotund DOB youngster who, despite way offside, was allowed by the referee to tap the ball into our open goal to extend DOB’s lead to 1 - 3.
Despite trailing at this score, we held the belief we could turn the game around but this optimism was punctured early in the 2nd half. Again, we allowed them too much room to move in our half and and failed to track their forward surging unimpeded into our box to plant a shot past Brandon. 1 – 4, all seemed beyond salvage but little did they know, we had a different script in the drawer. Switching See Chiang to the right midfield in the 2nd half liberated his spirit and he terrorised down the right flank with his speed and tough challenges on the ball. Mike, coming in for the static Melvin on the left, justified his re-introduction into the match. Both wide players provided the pivotal moment from which, we hit the point of no return. Just as our front duo retreated to avoid an offside call, See Chiang surged from the blind to latch onto the through ball. His speed caught DOB defenders by surprise and before they could blink their eyes, See Chiang squared the ball into the box for Simon, whose effort was denied by DOB’s custodian’s outstretched leg. Mike’s follow-up header hit the left upright but he regained his composure to hit the rebound past the keeper to reduce the deficit to 2 – 4. Kian Hwa then beat their left fullback twice on the right but on each occasion, his intended square pass for Teck Wah failed miserably, leaving the latter pulling his little hair in disgust. Another moment of inspiration from See Chiang led to our 3rd goal. He showed Kian Hwa how to cross in a ball as he pin-pointedly picked out Teck Wah at the far post. Teck Wah’s first-time left-foot volley hit Chor Guan on the line instead, yet our last man regained his orientation to produce an acrobatic hook high in mid-air to divert the ball into the net. 3 – 4 and DOB appeared shaken. Their look of disbelief was further compounded by our relentless attacks. Teck Wah was left with too much space and time to tee up his shot. Though his initial effort came off the defender, Weng Khong coolly slotted the rebound past the diving keeper for our equaliser. 4 – 4. Weng Khong’s elation was amply demonstrated in his wild arm-swinging celebration.
In leading to the restored parity, our defensive trio of Weng Kwan, Chwee Leng and Chung Wen (and later, Ng), and our midfield lynchpin, Mark, kept the shop tight at the back to hold DOB off. Chwee Leng, in particular, shone brightly in his fullback role. Weng Kwan gamely stepped up to take over Chor Guan, freeing the latter to add bites to our attack. With 5 minutes left, DOB probably thought we would step off the pedal but we proved them otherwise. Simon was re-introduced into the match to further bolster our attack, switching Weng Khong to the flank to continue piling pressure from wide. DOB failed to clear another ball from the flank and Gan was at the right place to shoot the ball past the desperate dive of DOB’s keeper. We unbelievably reversed the score to our favour, 5 – 4.
We ran down the clock in the final couple of minutes. By then, even if DOB still possessed fuel in their system, their spirit had been completely emptied out from their bodies. The win was sensational, to say the least.
Man of The Team: See Chiang (4 votes, out of 15)
Altogether 9 players were nominated and the eventual winner only garnered 4 out of 15 votes. That showed the tremendous effort put in by the team and not just a few individuals. See Chiang was deservedly crowned the MoTM with his superlative 2nd half performance on the right flank.
“Motm to see chiang. His hard running on the flanks made the difference.”
“motm: see chiang. once again terrorising the opponents down the flanks as he has done so recently. Huge factor in our comeback was the balls coming from the flanks. I think we should make him permanently a winger to take advantage of his speed.”
“MOM: See Chiang-played his best game yet..was all over the pitch and gave their left back a horrible time.”
“MOTM = See Chiang. Constant threat down the flanks that provide an additioanl attack option for the team. Outrun the younger opposition fullback at numerous occassion and get behind the opposition defence line with relatively ease. Should be rewarded with a goal at least...”
Teck Wah also came to life in the 2nd half after a lethargic display in the 1st half. He had a hand, or rather a foot, in 4 of the 5 goals. Superb! 3 votes went to him!
“MOTM is Teck Wah. " was always a threat to their defence"
“MOTM - Everyone played their hearts out for this come from behind win. Many players deserved to be put up. My vote goes to Teck Wah. He was clearly dangerous whenever he goes forward. He increased the tempo after he was reintroduced in the 2nd half.”
“This match is one of the hardest to choose.....each made significant contributions but vote goes to Teck Wah for his contributions which lead directly to results, one goal and two assists(our third and fourth goal, I think).”
Mike came in 3rd with 2 votes for his commendable performance:
“mike. again, he score when we are under pressure, especially for this game when we are down by 1-4...”
“I was toying between See Chiang and Mike – both made the difference in the 2nd half on the flanks, albeit at different extent. See Chiang was a terror down the right flank, did what Kian Hwa couldn’t do in providing crosses, assisted in 2 goals. Mike’s goal proved to be tonic just when we needed it most. His first attempt was great but his 2nd attempt was even greater. What pipped him to win my vote was when he raced back to cover Chwee Leng, and, despite giving away a penalty in the first half, brilliantly robbed the ball from their No 20 in the box – cleanly and effectively. Without this interception, No 20 could have gone on to snatch another goal. But Mike denied him with a good piece of defending, bearing in mind he was covering our left back then. Mike is my MoTM!”
6 players – Chwee Leng, Weng Khong, Mark, Chor Guan, Brandon and Kian Hwa – were nominated once each:
“MOTM: A big thump on my chest for the midfield and offense. Respect. You guys really kept the ball in the opponents side in the 2nd half. Probably alot of "worthy mentions" to come for the midfield and strikers but it was all a big blur for me. Offense and midfield performed like one. My credit this week goes to Chwee Leng for his complete performance, mopping all the balls that got through and sending them back into the pinball machine upfront.”
“MOTM. WengKhong. I saw the most involved, most committed and most supported play from Weng Khong after his comeback from injury. His equalizer is great morale booster for the whole team to carry on fighting for the win. Great work from him even other team members also contribute significantly”
“Tough decision for MoTM, whole team played well and so many individuals shined. Many of our games are usually won by outstanding play from 2 to 3 key players. The match yesterday was won by every team member. Mike started the revival and played his heart out. Chwee leng was solid at the back in the second half and his foray down the left flank was a constant threat to the opponents. Simon and mark neutralised their no. 16 in the second half, which we totally dominated unlike in the first. teck wah and gan gave hell and exploited their gaps in defence. Weng khong is back to his usual menance in midfield, harassing, dribbling, twisting and turning Brandon saved a penalty and could have been two if their overweight left winger had not run in before penalty was taken. 5 goals and 5 scorers, and this was one of the mothers of all come back. Mark wins the MoTM for his superb reading of game, positioning and running his heart out at their players.
“What a fantastics and a spectacular comeback! Great team spirits and efforts from all who played last Saturday! If let be, I'll vote everyone for MOTM but for the sake of the rules, I'll choose Chor Guan as the MOTM - for his second half performance was excellent, doubling the role of a stopper and as an additional defensive midfielder, closing down their playmaker and supporting our attack. Well Done Chor Guan!”
“MOTM is Brandon for saving both penalties though their mama player (no insult to Melvin) ran into penalty box even before the taker to slot in 1 rebound”
“It is surely a tremendous team effort to recover from 1-4 down to win 5-4 so this nomination will unfortunately be inadequate to honor many who gave their all in loud or silent ways. In a match like this, things behind the scenes can be a major difference between capitulation & glorious triumph. KH did the necessary today in organising the troops calmly & then let us do the business in pounding out the unimaginable comeback. Motm to him.”
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