Darren's debut in narrow loss

ARFC suffered its 3rd successive defeat in a friendly match at the much-smaller pitch at Yio Chu Kang SS when they went down 1-2 to the Singapore Sikh Association team. The supporters are Anna, Elvis’ beau, and Reyes, Derrick’s precocious son.

ARFC started with this line-up:

Keeper: Dependable Jinzhong
Right-back: Reliable David (captain)
Sweeper: Astute-reading sweeper Elvis
Stopper: Towering Toh
Left-back: Unpredictable Blackburn
Right-mid: Influential Sebastian
Centre-mid: Combative Ron
Centre-mid: Dynamic Soon
Left-mid: Hardman Tjioe
Striker: Powerful Alvin
Striker: Speedy Hee

Subs:

Talisman Derrick
Hardworking Tong
Darren (new player)

David was made captain for probably the first time in his long illustrious ARFC career. He tried his best to fend off the captaincy but to no avail. The referee seemed to want to celebrate David’s captaincy by making both teams lining up at the centre circle for a pre-match briefing followed by shaking of hands of both sets of players. It was almost like a Champions League match except that the music and flag-boys were missing.

Due to the much smaller and bumpy pitch, ARFC could not get its game going and could not create good chances.

In the 20th min, ARFC made a triple-substitution with Derrick, Tong and Darren replacing Alvin, Tjioe and Blackburn respectively. Darren’s appearance led to loud applause since it was after all his debut game for ARFC.

Darren did not disappoint the home crowd and would go on to have a very more than decent outing for ARFC.

ARFC conceded a goal after a failed off-side trap. 0-1.

ARFC tried to respond but several of their shots were blocked by their determined defenders. 0-1 was the half-time score.

In the second half, Tong cam back on at right mid replacing Sebastian. Tjioe came in at centre-mid for Toh as Ron dropped to stopper position. Blackburn also replaced David who had a slight knock at his ankle.

ARFC put in a much-improved performance in second half and was desperately close to an equalizer. Alvin, Derrick and Tjioe were particularly impressive, however, the equalizer still did not arrive.

In the 65th min, Toh replaced Elvis at sweeper, David took over Hee as Blackburn moved to forward and Sebastian took the place of Soon at centre-mid. These substitutions were made to freshen up the attack to get an equalizer.

The move nearly paid dividends when a series of one-twos between Blackburn and Sebastian had Blackburn firing in a shot that was well-saved by their keeper for a corner.

By now, ARFC was committing warriors forward and at times only left 2 defenders behind. It was off such a counter-attack that ARFC fell further behind. 0-2.

Undeterred, ARFC did not give up and was finally rewarded with a goal. From a beautifully-flighted corner from Alvin, their keeper dropped the ball in the 6-yard area after strong pressure by both Toh and Tjioe. Derrick reacted quickest and hooked the ball in for his 20th ARFC goal. 1-2 now and ARFC was firing.

Despite some strong pressure by the warriors and support from the fans, ARFC could not conjure up with an equalizer and fell to its 3rd successive defeat.