Match #40 (8 Oct 11): 2-2 Draw against Eagles

This is one team we've not beaten before and despite a depleted team, we had seem like breaking that record throughout the match. Falling behind to a goal for which an offside decision was not given in our favor, we continue to make the better play. Deservingly, we equalized early in the second half with Wah's superb volley from a quickly-taken free kick. Then we went on to take the initiative when Eagles put the ball into their own net after some concerted pressure from us. They managed to maintain their unbeaten record over us with a rather dubious goal, which was scored after an infringement on our keeper. Final score 2-2.

Match #39 (2 Oct 11): Unbeaten Streak Ended by Incompetent Referee

The incompetent referee robbed us of a win against SJI Old Boys. Instead we had to settle for a 1-2 loss, a result which we did not deserve. And SJI Old Boys knew they had gotten away with the match. Their opening goal came from a blatantly offside position which the myopic referee overlooked.   Then, for no reason, he denied Kian Hwa of a perfectly legitimate goal, which he nodded in from the corner delivered by Teck Wah. Even SJI Old Boys were bemused why the goal was disallowed. Another contentious moment came when their keeper managed to claw out the ball that appeared to have just crossed the line but again, referee turned a deaf ear to our appeal.

SJI Old Boys, boosted by more than a handful of young players who are hardly in their early 20s, made use of their young lungs to full advantage and their 2nd goal came in the 2nd half from their speedy (relative to us) winger down the right who squared in a low ball for their striker to turn See Chiang before planting the ball beyond Brandon.

We battled hard to win a penalty which Simon duly converted but counting the number of chances we created and our disallowed goal, we simply had a day that nothing went for us.

Match #38 (25 Sep 11): Held 2-2 again!

We can recycle following reasons as valid excuses as we age - young opponents, hot weather, we are mid-40s...But today we did not let our young opponent, Lime Green, overrun us. In fact, we had enough chances to bury them if we were a wee bit sharper and faster upfront. Lime Green took the lead and then fought hard to equalise. In between their goals, Simon and Mike reversed the deficit from the early goal conceded and put us at 2-1 up at the break. We knew we would be vulnerable in the 2nd half and true enough, we let them have too much space in front of our box and they found the equaliser from a well-taken goal outside the box.

We succumbed to the weather, no doubt, and the last minute pullouts of Weng Khong, Melvin and Yong Chua did not help the matter. Among the positive takeaways were See Chiang, making his comeback, having his runout for 2nd week in a row after a prolonged period of absence and even setting up Lime Green's first goal :), and Chwee Leng filling in admirably as a stopper for a good 45 minutes.

Match #37 (17 Sep 11): We Kicked Ourselves For Not Winning This Match!

Opponent AI1C (All Indians 1 Chinese) appeared to be a menacing bunch before the match when they challenged the referee for more time to get ready and we were bracing ourselves for some rough treatment, especially given our shortage in numbers and absence of a few regular players. But we put up an admirable performance and created a host of chances that we found it embarassing for not converting those into goals. They must have found us a bunch of AC1I (All Chinese 1 Indian, whom they didn't know is actually a Sikh) and mid-40s too hot to handle. Yet we found ourselves having to come back to equalise twice, courtesy of Gan's brace of goals. We let them off the hook, we knew it...and they sure knew it as well. 2-2 draw was the final score.

Match #36 (10 Sep 11): We Kept The Momentum Going

We notched up another convincing win over CJC Old Boys with a 4-0 margin. Goals from Weng Khong, Kian Hwa (direct from a corner-kick) and Teck Wah set the tone at the break. KH then got his brace and our 4th goal in the 2nd half from a well-worked passing move involving Yong Chua and Simon. Brandon's determination to keep a clean sheet was evident when going full-stretched to make 2 big saves as the match was coming to an end. Before that, our well-marshalled defence kept CJC Old Boys largely at bay.

Match #35 (4 Sep 11): Sweet Victory Over Venom

No doubt, Venom were without a few, all active Commandos, of their first team regulars for the match, but we shouldn't be denied of the credit for the convincing 4-1 win over them. And it could have been more!

The Tang brothers put us 2-0 up at the break, both capitalising on Venom's tentative defending. Our 2 goals in 2nd half came from simple work from both flanks. Weng Khong, on the right mid, won the ball deep in our half and sent the ball down the right highway to Teck Wah, who then wriggled across the pitch and set up Simon on a through-ball. Simon obliged by putting the ball past Venom's hapless keeper. Ng, in his favoured left fullback role, then intercepted Venom's play and sent KH clear on the left, whose only touch was to square the ball across into the box for Gan. Gan couldn't miss. In between our 2nd half goals, Venom had their consolation goal through a well-worked free-kick that caught us napping.

Our goals aside, it was encouraging to see Chor Guan, Kok Hock and Ng back into action after being out of sight, due to various reasons, for a while.

Match #33 (28 Aug 11): A Loss But Nothing To Be Ashamed Of!

Against Pseudo Katong FC (according to intelligence, their young players play for Katong FC in NFL and we recognised a couple of their senior players used to play in NFL as well), the 1-2 loss against them was nothing to be ashamed of. If we had converted any one of the three one-on-one chances in the 1st half, the outcome might have been different. The match was effectively settled at 1st half. We conceded a wildly spun goal and a fast breakaway goal. In between, KH scored through a well-worked move that started from the middle of the park to the right flank to a cross into the middle of the box.