Match #19 (22 April 2012): Durians Harvested But Gave Away A Few

For someone who didn't show us a wee bit of respect at all, turning up late, taking his own sweet time to change up, we punished him duly. With the clock hardly registering 5 minutes, this late-comer star keeper of A2 Orange embarrassingly allowed a tame low cross from Teck Wah to slip through his hands and legs for our opening goal. And we thought the floodgate should open wider but we toiled for some good 15 minutes without any further goals but instead allowed them to equalise. We hit top gear in the remaining 20 minutes of the first half, notching 4 goals through Kama, Teck Chye's brace, and Chor Guan to lead 5-1.

The Tang brothers completed the rout in the 2nd half with a goal apiece. The late morning heat then took a toll on our ageing bodies and limbs and we let them steal 2 durians from our harvest as the match was coming to an end. Final score: 7 - 3!

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 #15 (1 April 2012): We Only Had Ourselves to Kick!

Maybe Brandon was affected by the field warden who checked his NRIC before the match kick-off. Perhaps, he was too distracted by her charm - so SSC's new strategy to ensure genuine users of booked fields has some sort of side effects! That aside, to throw away a handsome 3-0 lead and in the end we were lucky not to lose the match, was simply uncharacteristic.

We raced to a comfortable 3-0 lead, courtesy of goals from Mike, Gan and Simon, by the 20th minute mark. Simon had his trademark goal cruelly denied by the referee's contentious decision to rule an infringement on AFC's keeper by Gan, when clearly, it was the keeper barging into Gan instead. AFC had their moments as well, hitting our upright in the early moment of the match and were all over us in the 2nd half. They reduced the deficit just before half-time. Their relentless pressure in the 2nd half paid off handsomely with 2 late goals.

Final score 3-3, as we reflected that a more savvy approach could have been more productive. We only had ourselves to kick!

Match #14 (25 Mar 2012): Unbeaten Streak Ended.......Agonisingly

It has to come, we knew it. But to concede defeat against Greyhounds, whom we knew we are capable of inflicting much more damage on them, was a tad agonising. Gan had a couple of certain goals cleared off the line and another coming off the woodwork, Teck Wah had a point-blank scorcher brilliantly tipped over by Greyhounds' keeper and another couple of half chances from Teck Chye and Mike, our efforts were simply insufficient to avoid the inevitable, the first defeat of the season.

Greyhounds lived up to the spirit of the no-nonsense breed, hounding us for every ball and driving us to the edge whenever we had the ball. 1st half was evenly matched but a scrappy affair. Greyhounds stole the lead when we allowed their midfielder to waltz through half the pitch unimpeded and send in a long ball that eluded every of our defenders for their striker to lob the ball over our static keeper. Teck Wah equalised before the break with a well-taken free-kick just outside the box.

A tactical change saw us seizing the initiatives in the early stages of the 2nd half, only to be dealth with by a sucker punch. A couple of long balls from Greyhounds sent the ball onto the right foot of their striker who brilliantly took it first-time to blast past the half-asleep Brandon. Our misery was further compounded with the concession of another soft goal. A weak corner somehow managed to slip through the grip of our custodian for their 3rd goal. We battled hard but luck wasn't on our side. Agonisingly....1-3 loss.

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.