In view of last week’s storming victory which kick-started year 2008, ARFC’s turnout was fantastic in a match played just now at the brand-new artificial pitch at 1st Toa Payoh SS in front of the watching, ever-faithful 77,777 fans.
For the first-time (and probably last time) in its illustrious history, ARFC was interviewed by the wonderful The New Paper (TNP) writers, Ms Ashikin Hashim and Mr David Lee, for the Weekend Warriors series.
After some interviews, ARFC got down to some serious business. Dependable Jinzhong was back in goal, astute-reading sweeper Elvis returned to partner Towering Toh at the heart of the defence, with determined Huiming and versatile Kiat Gulam as full-backs. Hardworking Tong and talisman Derrick took the flanks, with influential Sebastiano and hard-man Tjioe in midfield. ARFC scoring legend Haron and powerful Alvin were tasked with the heavy burden of getting the goals, leaving Speedy Hee, WO Neo, Deadly Robin, unpredictable Blackburn, reliable David and hard-running Guoxiong as the talented-studded bench.
Probably due to lack of warm-up, the slight euphoria of being interviewed and under the watchful eyes of the TNP, ARFC was completely not in its normal assured and calm self. In fact, the experienced opponents nearly opened the scoring straight after the kick-off when their left winger left the entire ARFC defence for dead. Thankfully, dependable Jinzhong came to ARFC’s rescue with a superb save.
The early scare did not wake ARFC up and it was hence no surprise when they took an early lead after just 7 mins. Their right-wing cross eluded every ARFC warriors and in came their left-winger to thump a header past the exasperated dependable Jinzhong. 0-1 now and the fans began to turn impatient as they wanted to watch the normal flowing ARFC play.
Determined not to let ARFC’s famed reputation down, all warriors began to put in their fair share of hard work. In the 17th min, ARFC equalized. Talisman Derrick was brought down on the right and upstepped influential Sebastiano to send a pointing ball into their 6-yard area. A number of warriors charged in but hard-man Tjioe, who bemoaned that he had not scored for ages before the match, won the ball ahead of others and his header easily beat their keeper for his 33rd ARFC goal. 1-1 now.
ARFC then made a series of substitutions. However, ARFC soon fell behind yet again when a high long ball into our defence was let loose and their striker easily beat jinzhong from close-range. 1-2 now.
The sky soon started pouring and the match was delayed for almost 27 mins. When play resumed, ARFC was back to its usual self and completely dominated the opponents. 7 mins after the re-start, hardworking Tong won the ball in the centre, spotted influential Sebastiano racing down the right flank and placed a measured ball to him. Looking up, influential Sebastiano spotted the lurking powerful Alvin in the area and delivered a high searching ball that eluded their keeper, leaving powerful Alvin to notch his 36th ARFC goal with a header into the unguarded net. 2-2.
Bizarrely, the referee then ended the match after only about 20 mins or so, citing that it was already past 7 pm. His un-professionalism then sparked off some trouble when ARFC fans began whistling and throwing soiled tissues and pads onto the pitch as they felt that the referee should have completed the match as it was delayed by rain and not by the teams. However, the referee ignored them and quickly collect his keep (which he clearly did not deserve) and rushed home, leaving behind the totally-baffled ARFC warriors and its opponents.
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