Match #17 (8 May 10): Drew 2 - 2 with Seafoodies

Again we melted in the morning sun at St Wilfrid, where we have been struggling at for quite a while. We should have won this match. We scored 2 good goals but also conceded 2 through lapses in concentration. But Seafoodies had to scramble to produce 2 goaline clearances to deny us the win. We were rather compact, restricting them to either shoot from distance or pass down the middle that posed no real threat to us. The heat sapped us and twice we lost our concentration and they capitalised on them to equalise.

Teck Wah got us our opening goal after a string of passes, particularly the final defence-splitting pass from Kok Hock, set him free to shoot the ball past the onrushing keeper. Before that, he lobbed the ball over the keeper from a tight angle but Seafoodies' last man got back in time to prevent the ball from settling into the net. Seafoodies equalised at the dying moments of the 1st half when their playmaker No 8 connected from a corner. That caught everyone flatfooted and their striker nodded the ball past the rooted Seah. 1-1 at half-time.

Yong Chua almost restored the lead for us but his goalbound header was scrambled away for a corner. But YC's next header from another corner helped set up our 2nd goal. Seafoodies' keeper couldn't hold on to YC's header and dropped the ball on the line. Weng Khong was at the right place to whack the ball in. Our joy was shortlived. The heat got the better of us, their right winger wriggled a free route towards our goal and unleashed a shot that cannoned off the bar. We failed to clear the rebound and their striker pounced onto the loose ball for their 2nd equaliser. 2-2.

Match #16 (2 May 10): A Labored Win over Pink

As usual, we arrived early. What's unusual was referee was early too. Some were asking where's the boss? He was in Taipei for whatever reasons....he he! Without the boss around, we were probably still half asleep when Pink opponent opened the scoring within minutes of the start. Think some of us had not even touched the ball. One could almost feel the wrath of the boss's roar from Taipei. We began to take control of the game thereafter. It did not take long for our goal to come. Gan took advantage of a defensive mix up to put us back into the game. Opponent was younger and full of running. Their only Malay player, a very young chap, was always a threat. Then a moment of genius from Chye put us 2-1 up. We were waiting but Chye decided to send his corner kick directly into goal instead.

Not long into the 2nd half, opp equalized with a deflected shot that flew over Seah into goal. Both teams then went in search of the winner. Off a freekick by Wah, both Mike & Chye went for the same ball. Instead of seeing them bundling the ball over the goal line, we saw two men in the net. YC was in the right place to first time the loose high ball back towards goal. Keeper was probably still distracted by Mike & Chye's little 'tete a tete' on the floor. He had a touch with his foot but it was not enough to keep the ball out. Pink went all out for the equaliser but we held on to grind out a deserving 3-2 victory.

Match #15 (24 Apr 10): Lost 3-4 against Top Ten

Our scrappy performance persisted throughout April, strange month indeed. Today, everyone seemed to have stepped into wrong-sized boots, including our usually dependable midfielders who kept giving the ball away. It was a very disjointed performance in the 1st half to say the least. We seized the lead through Teck Wah against the run of play, capitalising on their high line. Then they equalised through a direct free-kick. Gan pounced on another breakaway to put us 2-1 up before a poor giveaway allowed their star man to advance unchecked and let fly a stiff shot to beat Brandon. Another poor pass allowed the same star man to charge down the flank before setting up his striker to tap the ball in. 2 - 3 at the break. We kept the ball much better in the 2nd half. Gan squared the ball to Simon for our equaliser, or so we thought. Then, Top Ten made use of their height to nod in their winning goal from a corner. The scoreline could have been much worse had it not for Brandon who pulled off 2 fantastic saves and another 2 tip-overs to save us the embarassment.

Match #14 (17 Apr 10): Won 1-0 against Neighbourhood Kawan

Second successive week where we faced up against opponent comprising youngsters who are not even half our age. And this opponent was even more 'stylo' than our last week's opponent, with a few players turning up in full compression suit. But our grit and tactical discipline triumphed over individualism and showmanship. Yong Chua once again showed that joints and ligaments may be wearing out, agility may be eroding away, but class stays. His goal stamped class - after evading a tackle and seemingly losing his balance in the box, he steadied himself to place the ball beyond the well-positioned keeper for our only goal. But his goal would not have happened without that gritty tackle and superb interception from Chung Wen at the back. We converted that clearance into the winning goal in such fashion that even the football purists might have drooled. Against such team possessing youth and fitness, skill and techniques, we dug in and our defence line comprising Chor Guan, Rock, Weng Kwan, Chung Wen, Ng and Chwee Leng, with Mark providing the shield deserved our applause. 1-0 win but 10-nil satisfaction!

Match #13 (10 Apr 10): Lost 2 - 4 against Quality Young Boys

Our dismal performance continued. Not even YC's auspicious day could save us from our 2nd successive defeat. This young team, with all of them not even half our age, beat us 5-3 in our last encounter in Nov 2009. This time round, we did better in terms of twice seizing the lead before eventually caving in to their superior fitness and technical ability. Teck Wah got a brace, both coming from the left to set him up. But we came up short in fitness and holding on to the ball and those cost us the 4 goals conceded.

Match #12 (3 Apr 10): 2 - 3 loss against Cabin Crew FC

It was one of our worst games - disjointed, no fluency in passing, silly mistakes leading to the goals. Against a team which has never played in morning and could only garner just 11 players for this match, we surprisingly came up short. Individually, their players are no doubt much better than us but in terms of playing as a team, we could have done much better. We exchanged lead throughout the match - CCFC took the lead, courtesy of poor clearance by Brandon and poor marking by Kian Hwa, but Teck Wah and Simon reversed the initiative in our favour to put in a 2 - 1 lead at half-time. We capitulated in the 2nd half and gave away 2 further goals. CCFC could have extended the margin in the dying seconds but Brandon saved the penalty to deny them the luxury.

Match #11 (27 March 10): 4-3 comeback win against Morgan Stanley

Match of 2 MS. Of course, the real MS won ......

After being rained out for 2 weeks, our first taste of football was at a crappy pitch - narrow, bumpy and uneven. Morgan Stanley took to the atrocious pitch condition better than us. Marine Sunday had been pampered with the manicured astroturf pitch for far too long. Individually, they were a tad faster than us to the ball and were more robust in challenging for the ball. It wasn't surprising that we struggled a little throughout the match, trying to adapt to the pitch, controlling the ball and squaring up to them. Morgan Stanley peppered at our goal early in the match but against the run of play, we stole the lead through Mike. After being put through, Mike calmly rounded the advancing keeper and finished off smartly. But we didn't manage to hold on to the unexpected lead for too long. Their pace troubled our backline. Instead of clearing the ball, Ng was a step slower than their left winger in reaching the ball and tripped the winger instead. Morgan Stanley's cocky No 6 equalised from the resultant direct free-kick outside the box. 1st half ended 1 apiece.

If we had started our 1st half badly, the 2nd half was even more appalling. The defence was clearly devoid of any coordination and cohesion. Chwee Leng and Teck Wah gave the ball away cheaply on the right and this allowed their speedy left winger to rob the ball and send it into the box, which caused a mayhem among Brandon and our defensive quartet. We did everything except clear the ball out of the box and the pinball ended up at the feet of their striker in front of the open goal. Despite clearly in the offside position, the referee allowed his simple tap-in to stand. The referee seemed to atone for this bad decision when he awarded us a contentious penalty for a handball, when he was clearly not in good position to have judged it. Poor positional sense, both sides agreed. But Simon didn't capitalise on the good fortune as he shot straight at the keeper from the spot. It got worse for us as Brandon's lack of concentration spilled a simple tame shot from Morgan Stanley's No 6. Again, their speedy winger benefited from Brandon's moment of indiscretion to tap the ball into the open net. 3 - 1.

Situation looked bleak with less than 20 minutes to go but Marine Sunday are made of sterner stuff. The moment of truth came from an unexpected header from Kian Hwa to narrow the deficit to 3 - 2. This half saw more of our usual play from the flank and turnaround came from both flanks. Teck Wah's ball into the box eluded everyone except Kian Hwa who arrived at the far post to put the ball beyond the keeper. Parity restored, the extra shot of adrenaline put more spring in our steps and Morgan Stanley suddenly possessed the look of disbelief. More bewilderment was piled onto them. Kian Hwa exchanged a one-two with Weng Khong down the left before squaring a low cross into the box. Their clearance came off the shin of Mike and it was our turn to pick up the durian. Morgan Stanley came at us strongly in the closing stages but we managed to fend them off to complete another remarkable and memorable comeback. 4 - 3! A scrappy performance but a hugely satisfying win.