Derrick equalled record in front of his cute son, Rayes

In a friendly match at Ping Yi SS, ARFC shrugged off last week’s demoralizing defeat with a scintillating 12-2 win over its opponent. The victory also saw Derrick equaling ARFC’s most goals in a match by a warrior – 6 goals! Derrick’s feat was witnessed by none other than his son – the very cute Rayes!

Special credit, however, must be accorded to the most hardworking and fittest warrior in ARFC’s entire history – Soon. I mentioned this because we all know that Soon regularly goes for his marathon competitions in the morning and despite so, he would always turn up for our afternoon matches. If this happens to any one of us, we would take at least 7 days’ MC after a marathon, not to mention turning up for afternoon matches. Of course, being fit is one thing but I think it is really very kind, mature, responsible and dedicated of Soon to still turn up for our matches and played his hearts and lungs out!

For this match, Soon did the same thing but I took him out because he looked tired as he woke up at 2 am earlier in the day and also the opponents are rather weak and there is no need to tired him out further.

ARFC also welcomed back Jinzhong who has been out for a few matches.

ARFC started with this line-up:

Keeper: Dependable Jinzhong
Right-back: Marauding Guoxiong
Sweeper: Astute-reading sweeper Elvis
Stopper: Combative Ron
Left-back: Unbeatable Darren
Right-mid: Long-throw specialist Norman
Centre-mid: Dynamic Soon
Centre-mid: Steely Tze Ern
Left-mid: Talisman Derrick
Striker: Unpredictable Blackburn
Striker: Powerful Alvin (captain)

Subs:

Influential Sebastian (late)
Talented Chun Haw
Seh Meng (guest player – still negotiating weekly wages for him to join us permanently)

Absent:

Hard-man Tjioe
Sublime Khim
Wonder Wayne
Towering Toh
ARFC Scoring Legend Haron
Speedy Hee
Precocious En Dian
Nippy Kenny

Right from the kick-off, it is clear that ARFC is a far superior team than its opponents. Nevertheless, both teams still played their best.

In the 7th min, ARFC drew first blood when Alvin’s cross from the right found Derrick who duly shot home for his 38th ARFC goal. 1-0

Derrick doubled the lead when he exchanged one-two with Blackburn before moving in for the kill for his 39th ARFC goal. 2-0

Derrick then notched his 2nd ARFC hat-trick mins later. Seh Meng swung in a right-wing cross and hearing a very loud call from Derrick, Alvin let the ball run to Derrick who duly thumped home for his 40th ARFC goal and completed his hat-trick. 3-0.

The last time that Derrick scored a hat-trick was on 02 March 2008 in a 9-0 win which also saw Alvin netting 3 goals in the match.

Blackburn then got into the scoring act when he broke clear to leash home for his 101st ARFC goal. 4-0

ARFC then conceded a goal. 4-1

Clearly firing now and backed by Rayes’ cheering, Derrick scored his 4th goal in the match. From Darren’s wonderfully floated no-look high ball from his left-back position, Derrick burst through and easily beat their keeper for his 41st ARFC goal. 5-1

Straight from the re-start, Sebastian and Alvin combined to harass their players which saw Alvin easily beating their keeper for his 152nd ARFC goal. 6-1

Off yet another pressure, Blackburn scored for his 102nd ARFC goal. 7-1

Mins before the end of the half, Darren galloped his way down the left flank ala Roberto Carlos and from a very precise cross, Chun Haw ran in from deep and powered home with his head for his 1st-ever ARFC goal and thereby becoming ARFC’s youngest-ever goal-scorer! 8-1

In the 2nd half, ARFC eased up but still managed to score 4 more goals.

First, Derrick notched his 42nd ARFC goal for a 9-1 lead before the opponents pulled another goal back for 9-2.

Blackburn then completed his hat-trick when he expertly sliced the ball home all the way from the right flank area that bewildered their keeper. 10-2

This was Blackburn’s 103rd ARFC goal and his 4th-ever hat-trick for ARFC, putting him level with Jiong Jiong (ex-player), Hee and Sebastian.

Blackburn then created an opening for Chun Haw to double his ARFC tally. 11-2
The opponents pulled another goal back for 11-3 before Derrick scored his 6th and record-equaling goal for ARFC. 12-3.

Towards the end, ARFC tried to make Derrick a record by was somewhat let down by Blackburn’s rather selfish display.

Man-of-the-Match is jointly given to Tze Ern and Derrick.