Playing a night match at Tampines SAFRA, ARFC continued its winless streak in 2010 after going down to a real-baffling 1-2 defeat at the hands of the Senior Police Officers Mess (SPOM) team in front of its supporters, Anna (Elvis’ wife) and Su + Afiqah, the 2 lovely babes in Haron’s family.
ARFC suffered a crushing blow when Guoxiong had to pull out due to his protracted multi-million negotiation with FIFA on bringing the World Cup matches live to Singapore via his company, Mobile-Hub. Thankfully, the effect was neutralized when Toh and Blackburn managed to make it to the match.
ARFC started with this line-up:
Keeper: Unpredictable Blackburn
Right-back: Influential Sebastian
Sweeper: Astute-reading Elvis
Stopper: Towering Toh
Left-back: Unbeatable Darren
Right-mid: Talisman Derrick
Centre-mid: Hardman Tjioe
Centre-mid: Dynamic Soon
Left-mid: Nippy Kenny
Striker: Powerful Alvin
Striker: ARFC Scoring Legend Haron (captain)
Subs (all except Aaron were late):
Sublime Khim
Guest player Aaron
Guest player Adrian
Guest player Patrick (keeper)
ARFC was really keen to end its winless run in 2010 so far and stated its clear intention from the start by creating chances after chances. However, all the chances were not taken.
Guest keeper Patrick then replaced Blackburn at the 17th-min mark with Derrick going off. Within mins of coming on, SPOM scored after a speculative shot just managed to creep in between the cross-bar and Patrick’s out-stretched hands. 0-1.
ARFC did not let its heads dropped and continued to press the opponents. Again, many chances were created but still not taken. Alvin was put through on a couple of occasions but his hesitancy proved costly.
Haron then executed a slide-rule pass to Sebastian just inside the box but Sebastian’s damaged left-knee let him down as he could not shoot the ball with his left leg and the chance was lost.
7 mins before the break, Khim squared the ball to the on-rushing Sebastian outside the box and his first-time side-footed shot just flew narrowly wide. Unlucky!!
In the 2nd half, ARFC continued where it let off by again creating so many chances. The silver lining looked to have arrived in the 57th min after Alvin, who caused mayhem to the opposing defenders all night, was clumsily pulled down at the left-hand side of the box, giving the referee an easy decision. Sebastian stepped up but his poorly-struck spot-kick was palmed away by their full-body-diving former 1st-choice Police NFL team Gurkha keeper.
ARFC finally equalized in the 67th min. Khim, who gradually came into force as the match progresses, provided a sublimely-piercing through ball right through the centre for Kenny. Kenny came in from deep, broke clear from their back-pedalling defence and powered home a fierce ground shot for his 4th ARFC goal. 1-1 now.
ARFC did not relent but still wasted tons of opportunities with Alvin the chief culprit. However, the positive note is that at least he got into those scoring opportunities but tonight was clearly not his night.
Just mins from the end, ARFC conceded a goal to eventually go down 1-2.
This was a match where ARFC played really well and on a better night, could have gone on to win by at least 5 goals. The opponent owed its victory to their superb keeper who made at least 5 or 6 crucial saves, mostly from Alvin, including Sebastian’s botched penalty.
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