Match #30 (28 Jul 2013): Convincing 8-3 Win, But Not Good Enough

It was a match of two halves. We were sixes and sevens in the first half against Tebing FC, which, no disrespect to them, we should have done better in this half than to concede two soft goals. We were not even containing them, let alone controlling the match. Second half saw us in our menacing self, reversing a 1-2 deficit at the break to eventually carve out a rather flattering 8-3 win.

Short of all the recognised central defenders, except for Rock, it was a case of wrong deployment of players in the two central defending positions by fielding Rock and Teck Chye (and then later replaced by Kama) as sweeper and stopper respectively. It was not a question of their capabilities but a matter of regularity and familiarity of them in these roles. Neither plays regularly in the assigned role, as simple as that. Generally, were were disjointed and appalling in the first half, with hurried play and misplaced passes. A tactical switch made at the break paid off. Instead of making two players not totally comfortable in their roles, we switched Rock, a specialist stopper, to his usual role and dropped Simon to sweep the line. Now, at least we had one player totally comfortable in his central defending role and that seemed to work in the second half as we imposed ourselves right from when the match resumed after the break.

Tebing FC were a big suspect in their backline that appeared vulnerable to crosses and defending against dead ball. They were just as static to cut off through balls. Four of our goals came from corners, the other four resulted from through-balls which they failed to read the running of our front players.

Teck Wah (3), Mike (2), Kian Hwa (2) and Woon completed the rout. We conceded a late goal in the second half, a scant consolation to Tebing.

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 #4 (27 Jan 2013): We Ain't Holy But We Redeemed Ourselves

Somehow, whenever we play against a church team, we fare badly. Perhaps, we are being too harsh with ourselves by treating ourselves as sinners, thereby deferring to those holy souls. And we tend to fare credibly against young team but not so against a veteran team. So, Trinity, a church team comprising players of our age or slightly older, have those double factors over us, a kind of unexplainable aura over us that we were playing like lost sheep without the guiding shepherd and within the first 15 minutes, we conceded 2 soft goals.

That required a call for drastic action to address the non-existent play and a couple of substitutions were made at the 15th minute mark, which doesn't happen by KH's practice. But he just had to do it to plug the hole-y display by our players. We started to create chances. Woon and Teck Wah came closest but luck seemed to have deserted them on those occasions. 0-2 down at the break and the half-time pep talk focused on seizing the initiative in the 2nd half rather than brooding over the spilled milk in the 1st half.

We found that divine spirit in us when play resumed. Teck Wah beat the offside line to set up Weng Khong for a tap-in to reduce the deficit. From then on, we piled relentless pressure on Trinity's goal. Melvin found See Chiang on the right with a long ball and See Chiang's first-timer appeared to be a cross but it fooled everyone, including Trinity's holy angel in goal, as it sailed into goal. Parity restored with 15 minutes left and we opted to go for broke by opting to play 3 at the back with Simon anchoring the midfield and push both Weng Khong and Kama to support attacks. But it was Kok Hock who produced that moment of magic, to the dismay of Trinity. A delightful cut-back with his left foot to switch the ball to his right, he then let fly a curler to leave Trinity's custodian flat-footed. We reversed the deficit into a slender lead and held on to win this cracker! 3-2!

Match #52 (9 Dec 2012): It all happened at the end!

With only 12 today, our job was made more enviable with an opponent who had the luxury to field two teams. Nevertheless, we stuck to the task but it required a huge effort at the end. It didn't seem so at the start when we dominated possession and chances, though MACOM (short for Majority Chinese One Malay, the latter being the player they most depended on playmaking) was fortunate to live by the skin of their teeth. We eventually took the lead in the first half when Delap Khong's throw was handled in the box. He took responsibility for the penalty and scored from the rebound after the initial effort was saved. ROI for new Nike boots was doubled immediately.

MACOM gave us a surprise in the second half. Not only did they continue to restrict us, they scored two quick-fire goals near the end to take the lead. We equalized after some hard work from Chiang to win the ball and passing it to Simon to conjure a defence-splitting chip for Gan to chest it down majestically before slipping it past the keeper. We continued the pressure and were rewarded when Gan won the ball from their goal kick and released Wah who cut in and smashed a grounder to put us ahead. It ended 3-2, much to the disappointment of MACOM which was super hyped up just moments ago.

Match #27 (17 June 2012): Trinity Trample

Match report by the Rock!

We started the game with zero unemployment. Mel's nephew was called in beef up the numbers as we decided to go slow & not fast in our game plan... & he proved to be a much needed substitute later on in the game when our legs struggled to hold out. And we were glad to be further reinforced by a last minute turn-up by Mark & the game commenced with two substitutes. Game on with very much the same problem that we would like to perform a comeback - conceding a goal first to a very well-taken & low shot by Trinity's striker after tearing down our right flank. Our opponents are firing a lot of crosses that caught the defence back-paddling on numerous occasions. But, as usual, comeback we did & Wah showed Trinity Boys his version of a low & well-taken shot on the right flank and we are back in business. First half finished with one a-piece.

2nd half started with substitutions & rotation of positions according to the strength of our players - moving Mel to last man & Kwan to the left back. Credit to Mel's strategy in keeping the defence line low which congested our half with midfielders compacting the mid line doing their 'loansharking activities' - harassment. Gan did a great job as a central midfielder doing the harassment work with his henchmen - Mark (defensive central mid), Woon & Khong, left & right mid respectively. This deployment cut off crosses by our opponents & we started to string passes together after winning the ball in the midfield & defence areas. Tiredness started to seep in but MS boys showed their determination, with carefully well-strung passes found Wah again twice, Khong once & Gan once bringing the final score to a satisfactory 5-3 win for MS, albeit Trinity boys making a serious attempt to come back into the game scoring two more goals towards the later part of the the game. Good try but too late....they forgot we are the authentic comeback kings!

Must state that Gan's goal was quite a beauty after having dribbled past 3 opponents down the left flank & cut back to cross. Upon receiving a rebound, he volleyed in a shot from a very tight angle catching Trinity keeper off-guard. In conclusion, MS was a cohesive fighting machine that day with every cylinders(players) firing!

Match #24 (26 May 2012): We can't win by going in front .....

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 :)

Match #23 (20 May 2012): Flow Inter-rupted: Another Brilliant Comeback!

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.

Match #22 (12 May 2012): Comeback 3-2 Win!

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!

Match #20 (29 April 2012): We Made All-Stars See Stars!

This was a match where we dug deep into our experience to carve out an impressive win against Dunman All Stars, a team whose average age is 14 years younger than us. And considering we had only 12 turnouts against their 17, the win was all the more admirable. Last minute pullouts of Melvin and Leo reduced the team to bare bones, the joy of YC's arrival was short-lived and dimmed by the back injury sustained by Kama during the match. Still, we battled on and the unwavering spirit prevailed! In such adversity, much to everyone's pleasant astonishment, Mike stood up to be counted as he chalked up 4 goals to his credit.

DAS had us in sixes and sevens in the opening 25 minutes of the match. They notched an early goal after a mix-up in our defence presented their swift striker with a ERP-less access to our goal. They then came close again when another build-up hit the post, followed by another certain goal denied by Brandon's broad chest. We struggled to find some semblance of fluency in our play. Mike, after his initial tentative play, then popped up to reverse the early deficit with 2 poacher goals, both from fine assists by Teck Wah, only for another defensive lapse to present DAS with a soft equalising goal. DAS thought they had regained the upper hand but Teck Wah completed his hat-trick of assists when he set up Chwee Leng for a clinical finish that was reminiscent of his old VJC self. 3-2 at the break.

We expected DAS to come back strongly in the 2nd half but by their own admission, the team spirit evaporated in the warm weather and they lost their shape. Teck Chye intercepted one of the many poor clearances from DAS' keeper and set his younger sibling up for his deserving goal. Mike then displayed his agility to the fullest - first rising highest like a salmon to meet Teck Wah's corner with a header that would have made Fandi Ahmad proud. Then, from another Teck Wah's corner, he stooped to the lowest point he could and headed another ball unchallenged into goal. 6-2 and we looked to be cruising, but DAS benefitted from the referee's dubious call for a soft penalty and reduced the deficit to a less embarrassing 6-3 scoreline.

Match #18 (14 Apr 2012): Another comeback, a good win

We didn't do ourselves justice the last time we played CJC old boys, managing with a labored draw. Thunder in the distance aside, we ensured lighting doesn't strike twice. Yet we found ourselves going behind for the third match in succession when CJC old boys took three bites of the cherry to finally put the ball just over the line. Our equalizer came from unlikely circumstances. Gan, not normally our corner kick taker, swung one to the near post. With the keeper flapping, Khong reacted quickest to plunder the loose ball from the narrowest of angles.

KH gave his half-time team talk and made the substitutions. We could either fail him and lose this game or credit him with a good result. It wasn't long after he had turned his back to prepare for the Merseyside derby that we conjured the lead - lending credence to his Midas talk! From a throw-in in our half, four slick passes was all it took to free up Gan to apply an accurate finish. Continued pressure enabled us to camp in their half. Their defender dawdled on the ball and he was duly punished as YC unceremoniously robbed him of the ball and completed the humiliation with a cool finish. At the death, Teck Wah did all the hard work before laying the ball for Simon to toe-poke the ball past the keeper.

Another comeback win, but comfortable all the same!

Match #17 (8 Apr 2012): Double Comeback Win

Some things we couldn't achieve on good Fridays or every Sunday - this time we finally did it. A team bearing some semblance to MS, all Chinese saved for 1 outstanding Malay, but that's where the similarities end. Are there no above-40 teams out there? Another young team, another challenge for MS to overcome - and we have been doing a rather decent job of it, betraying the age of the team.

Unicef Yellows started brightly, keeping possession well, speedy wingers tearing down the flanks. A cross from the left created confusion and led to their first goal with a well-taken finish. On the other end, their failure to clear convincingly allowed Rock to score a rare and nonetheless beautiful goal - sweeping a looping shot over the entire defence as he was falling on account of a heavy b***! UY took the lead again just before half time when their winger again took the ball down the right. At full stretch, his fortuitous cross skidded on the surface and eluded everyone as it slipped in through the near post from an acute angle.

Good interplay epitomize our second half as all three goals were well-created. Starting the moves from our own half, we worked the ball out of it, wide to the flanks before superb finishing was applied to the crosses and knock-backs. Gan equalized with an assist from Wah. He then turned provider with a deep cross for Chye to slid in, making up lots of ground along the way. Chye then headed an assist for Wah to extend our lead. UY scored a late goal to make substitutions decisions harder but we prevailed 4-3.

Let's hope a new run is started!

Match #16 (6 Apr 2012): Double Comeback!

A third consecutive opponent which was young and full of energy (and reserves to boot), yet when we looked back, it was another match we could have won. Unfortunately, we will have to rediscover our winning groove on another day.

MOA started confidently and stroked the ball around the big pitch (by our standards these days), but without any real penetration. We had the more clear-cut chances but contrived to fluff them. We paid for those when MOA launched 2 counter-attack sucker punches. 2 down at half time.

KH made some tactical substitutions for his final contribution of the day. His breakfast was well-deserved as we started to click and take control of the game. Gan scored 2 goals to bring us back on par before MOA regained the initiative with another goal. We continued to play with confidence and drive as MOA struggled to cope. When Gan sent a beautiful cross for Wah to stroke home, we were all fired up to snatch a win. Unfortunately time ran out and we had to settle for a second successive 3-3 draw.

Match #13 (18 Mar 2012): Football Focused - Ignored Rough Play and Emerged Worthy 4-1 Winner

It was blessing in disguise that our Fighting Cock Trio were absent from this match against Kampung Hijau, otherwise their 2nd half's incessant antics would have certainly triggered a free-for-all. A relatively incident-free 1st half degenerated into crunching tackles and flying elbows from the kawan of the Hijau gang in the 2nd half, resulting in a few brusied lips on Teck Wah, Weng Kwan, Weng Khong and knocks on Rock and Gan. But we overcame their unnecessary rough play and walked away with a convincing 4-1 win over them.

How we ended up just 1-1 at the break bore uncanny resemblance with Liverpool's home form this season. We created a handful of scoring chances before being dealt with a sucker punch when Kampung Hijau's first and only goal attempt in the 1st half allow them to take the lead against the run of play. We continued to capitalise on their fumbling goalkeeper whose handling of the ball was highly suspicious and indeed, he made a mess out of Teck Wah's attempt and Gan pounded on the rebound for our equaliser. His fumbling antics aside, their keeper astonishingly produced two superb reflex saves to deny Gan's header and a certain own goal from his defender's head.

Despite the rough measures dished out by the Hijau gang in the 2nd half, we kept our cool to move the ball around albeit a tad harder with the water-logged pitch. While Simon's numerous long-range attempts were either too weak or sailed over, Teck Wah produced the perfect strike from a free-kick just outside the box to put us 2-1 up. Gan was then fouled in the box and Simon made no mistake from the spot despite a defender's attempt to play mind games on our Mr Reliable. Then, the goal of the match put the icing on the cake. Chor Guan, deployed upfront in the last 25 min of the match, turned his marker and left him dead, went down to the byeline before squaring the ball for the onrushing Teck Wah to get ahead of the keeper and nip the ball in. Simple flowing football! Worthy 4-1 winners, we were.

Match #12 (11 Mar 2012): Dug Deep for satisfying 2-1 win

Estar Loco looked the type of team that fancies form over substance. Togged in the blue and black of Inter Milan, they were darn serious on what adorns them relatively young turks, with the captain (and then subsequent changes) taking time to put the armband on. Wah siah (accord the meaning according to whether u prefer the second or third intonation of the hanyu pinyin)!

We humble MS didn't have our usual captain to flaunt the kind of substance that matters, so we were left with our greying hair as indication that we could be of some small threat. Off the go, EL were playing it tight and pressing hard, albeit without any real threat in attack. We were compact in defence and more incisive in attack, and created a few chances that should have put us in a comfortable lead, but the first half ended with the match finely balanced.

The pattern of the match continued very much in the same vein and to our surprise, we went behind through a well-taken shot from their nifty forward. We turned the match around late on with 2 strikes from Wah, assisted by a long throw from Khong, and a free-kick delivery from Simon. Great spirit shown in a thoroughly deserving win!

Match #3 (7 Jan 2012): 1st leg 1-1 draw with Sofa

Coincidentally, we played against SOFA, our opponent for 14 Jan, today and it ended on a cordial 1-1 draw. it was a fair result. We could have won the 1st half but they could have wrapped up the 2nd half. Just before the break, against the run of play, we let in a soft goal to allow them have a 1-0 lead at the break. But Lady Luck smiled on when Mike, clearly offside, equalised for us in 2nd half. So, fair and square, no complaints :)

Match #2 (31 Dec 2011): Against Kampung Semangat United, Our Spirit Was No Less

The trademark Marine Sunday spirit was demonstrated aplenty in our 2nd match of the season. 0-2 down, we fought on; 1-3 down, we pressed on; 2-4 down; we persevered; and we ended the match 4-4 against Kampung Semangat United. Simon, Gan and Yong Chua got onto the scoresheet again and Yong Chua forced an own goal from their defender. At times, we could have just simply played simple football and that could have won us the match. But to recover to draw parity, we have nothing to complain as well.

Match #45 (19 Nov 11): Strong 5-2 win over Malay team

With the team shorn of its usual central defenders, Marinesunday improvised and rotated admirably to overcome a Malay team of mixed ages which on the whole is still way younger than the ageing marines. Leng is showing his versatility across the back and his usual reliability playing in the stopper's role. Gan also showed his strength and decisiveness at the back, contributing to the second half's clean sheet. Mel in goal showed that stiff joints and muscles could not hold back a willing spirit, diving in practically every direction to thwart our opponents as they could only watch those incredible saves in disbelief! Our team played well to come back from behind twice and score all 5 goals from well-constructed open play. Scorers: Chye, Wah, Gan, Khong and Mike. Final score 5-2.

Match #41 (16 Oct 11): Fantastic Fightback Win 4-3!

It was a fightback of an epic nature, the kind of heroics that could etch onto concrete slabs as folklore for future generations to saviour. No regular sweeper n stopper to start with, 0-3 down at half-time, lost our No 1 keeper just before the break....all looked doom and gloom. We took a gamble in the line-up for 2nd half and unbelievably, and to much astonishment of opponent Carmichael, we carved out a gigantic 4-3 win, which even Liverpool's turnaround in Istanbul in 2005 Champions League Final paled in comparison.

Gan, as the stand-in sweeper in 1H, atoned for his disappointment in 1H with an accompished performance in 2H when he partnered Teck Wah upfront. He posed a constant threat to Carmichael's backline. Melvin and Chwee Leng stood in as the central defensive pair in 2H and it was a flawless performance from both of them. Melvin marshalled the line superbly and Chwee Leng shackled their African striker like a bloodhound without giving the latter an inch to move. Watch out, Chor Guan, Weng Kwan, Rock and Kok Hock, you have competition! The fact that KH, as stand-in keeper, was hardly threatened in 2H said a lot of the big performance from our defensive quartet.

We knew if we could get a goal early in the 2H, we might have a chance and Mark provided the perfect tonic. He stood up to the challenge in midfield and scored an Alonso-like goal from just after the midfield line. Yong Chua was at his most effective self as the attacking midfielder, winning us the penalty which Gan, who deserved a goal for leading the line, converted. 2-3 and we were in for a shout. Mike, given a dressing-down by KH during the break, has that habit of embarassing KH with a well-taken poacher goal. But it was due to great effort of Yong Chua and then Gan to bring the ball back into the box for Mike to sneak in with a header. Then, a rare cross from Woon from the left brought out the best from Teck Wah with his spectacular left-foot mid-air volley to score the winning goal. We could have our 5th goal but Simon's glorious effort from distance was acrobatically tipped over by Carmichael's keeper.

4-3! What a win! Everyone deserved that pat on the shoulder!

Match #27 (24 July 11): A Fair 2-2 Draw Against KS Blues

Previously, I named them Shades of Blue. But they turned up with a brand new kit, I had to refer them as Kok Seng's Blues. It was an evenly contested match, and I suppose nobody will complain of the 2-all draw. Teck Chye opened the scoring, KS Blues reversed to take 2-1 lead before Simon equalised with his trademark volley from the edge of the penalty box just before the final whistle went off.

Match #25 (10 July 11): Plucky 2-1 Win

Marine Sunday had their self-proclaimed Manager, KH, to thank for masterminding a plucky come-from-behind 2-1 win over Everton MIK Utd. Not for his great tactics or line-up, he brought our favoured Mikasa ball, which the referee put to use in the 2nd half. Our players claimed to have better control of the ball compared to the beach ball used during the first period. Trailing a goal at the break, a more assured performance in the 2nd half created enough chances to win the match comfortably but we left it late to secure the win. Teck Wah was the architect behind both our goals, setting up Mike and Weng Khong to find the net for us. Incidentally, it was Weng Khong's maiden goal of this season! And a winning one, fantastic!