Playing on rather-poor Serangoon Sec Sch pitch, ARFC avenged its earlier defeat by Macheda by earning a hard-fought but certainly well-deserved 1-0 victory. The winning goal was scored by Derrick but ARFC secured the win thanks to a colossal performance from Ron as sweeper and Soon’s superb dynamic performance.
When the kick-off time strikes 5 pm, ARFC still only had 6 warriors but thankfully, Haron, Derrick and Seh Meng responded to the SOS call.
ARFC started with just 10 warriors as follows:
Keeper: Talented Chun Haw
Right-back: Seh Meng (guest player)
Sweeper: Combative Ron
Stopper: Towering Toh
Left-back: Unbeatable Darren
Right-mid: Long-throw specialist Norman
Centre-mid: Influential Sebastian
Centre-mid: Dynamic Soon
Left-mid: Unpredictable Blackburn (captain)
Striker: Yao Yang (guest player)
Absent:
Wonder Wayne
Sublime Khim
Astute-reading sweeper Elvis
Dependable Jinzhong
Powerful Alvin
Marauding Guoxiong
Steely Tze Ern
Speedy Hee
Hard-man Tjioe
Precocious En Dian
Nippy Kenny
ARFC Scoring Legend Haron joined in at the 10.7th min mark to partner Yao Yang upfront.
In the 17th min, ARFC nearly took the lead. Sebastian swung in a wicked free kick from the right and both Toh and Yao Yang dashed in only to just fail to connect with the ball.
Talisman Derrick finally arrived and took over Yao Yang, who worked real hard upfront, in the 20th min.
Chun Haw did well with several assured catches and saves.
In the 27th min, Sebastian’s long kick from inside his own half took a bounce inside the penalty area and nearly looped over the keeper but he turned the ball over for a corner.
Darren and Norman conjured several missile-like throw-ins but ARFC was unable to capitalize.
Haron also made space for a couple of shots but to no avail.
The half ended goalless.
In the 2nd half, Chun Haw again impressed with his assured display between the sticks.
In the 57th min, ARFC looked to have scored when Toh met Sebastian’s hanging corner to head the ball in but the referee harshly adjudged that Toh had impeded their keeper. Unlucky!
ARFC took the lead in the 67th min which started from a piece of brave header from Darren. With the ball dropping from high up inside the ARFC left midfield area, Darren put his body on the line by braving charging in and won the header from 3 opponents. The ball was received by Haron who took a quick touch before releasing Derrick with a clever through ball. Derrick took 2 touches and brought the ball all the way into their penalty area and with their keeper coming out, Derrick side-footed the ball home for his 35th ARFC goal. 1-0. Derrick’s goal also took him level on 35 goals with Soon.
The opponents tried their best to look for an equaliser but ARFC’s defence of Ron, Toh, She Meng, Darren and later on Blackburn who took over Darren held firm and repelled their attacks. Chun Haw also made a crucial diving save in the dying mins to deny them.
This was a match where all warriors displayed the true ARFC fighting spirit and all put in lion-hearted performance despite being short on numbers.
Most importantly, ARFC also showed that it can still take on youngsters.
Man-of-the-Match is given to Soon though I must say Ron and Chun Haw came real close.
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