In a match that saw Toh notched his 50th ARFC career goals with yet another header, ARFC finally got off to a winning start after dismissing Team Buffalo 6-2 in front of Rayes, Tracie and Anna, son and wives of Derrick, Guoxiong and Elvis respectively.
Attendance for this match was much better as several warriors turned up at the 11th hour.
ARFC started with this line-up:
Keeper: Dependable Jinzhong
Right-back: Marauding Guoxiong
Sweeper: Astute-reading sweeper Elvis
Stopper: Towering Toh
Left-back: Wonder Wayne
Right-mid: Talisman Derrick
Centre-mid: Dynamic Soon
Centre-mid: Influential Sebastian
Left-mid: Sublime Khim
Striker: Powerful Alvin
Striker: Unpredictable Blackburn (captain)
Subs:
ARFC Scoring Legend Haron
Steely Tze Ern
Talented Chun Haw
Minghui (guest player)
Absent:
Unbeatable Darren
Hard-man Tjioe
Long-throw specialist Norman
Combative Ron
Speedy Hee
Precocious En Dian
Nippy Kenny
From its first meaningful attack, ARFC won a corner on the left. For the umpteenth time, Sebastian’s precise corner was met forcefully by Toh’s forehead which connected powerfully with the ball for his 50th ARFC goal! 1-0
Toh’s took him past ex-warrior Jeffrey’s 49 goals and Toh is now at 8th position, still a place behind Tjioe’s 57 ARFC goals.
According to ARFC’s archives, about 97.7777777% of Toh’s 50 goals so far were scored via headers!
Mins later, Derrick was put through by Sebastian diagonal low ball but he shot into row Z when Alvin was free to his left.
ARFC then conceded a goal from a free-kick. 1-1
ARFC then had a stroke of good luck when the ball touched Blackburn’s hands when he was bringing the ball down. However, the referee did not spot the infringement and Blackburn took a step forward before unleashing a rising diagonal shot that hit the left up-right before ending up on the right hand side of the net for his 104th ARFC goal. 2-1
Mins later, their keeper fumbled the ball from an innocuous ball and Khim scooped up the rebound and laid the ball for Blackburn to score with yet another beauty for his 105th ARFC goal. 3-1
Blackburn completed his hat-trick after Alvin again showed power and shield by gliding down the left by-line before squaring the bal across for Blackburn to score with a slice shot. 4-1.
This was Blackburn’s 5th hat-trick for ARFC but he still has a long way to match the 3 warriors in front of him – Alvin (14 hat-tricks), Haron (11 hat-tricks) and ex-warrior Robin (10 hat-tricks).
Toh then doubled his tally in the match with yet another powerful header from yet another Sebastian’s corner. The only difference to his 1st goal was this was from the right-hand side. 5-1 and this was Toh’s 51st ARFC goals, still 6 short of Tjioe’s 57 goals.
In yet another sweeping attack, Blackburn and Derrick combined down the right which saw Blackburn lofting the ball to the far post with the ball bouncing away from the keeper. Spotting their keeper coming towards him, Haron took his time and executed a looping header all the way back to the near post for his 173rd ARFC goal! 6-1
In the 2nd half, ARFC conceded another goal. 6-2.
Undeterred, ARFC continued pressing for more goals and it was really a big surprise that it did not add to its tally with so many chances created but spurned them all. The chief culprit was Haron who missed 2 great open chances when it was easier to score. Derrick also missed with a lifted ball over their keeper while Chun Haw narrowly failed to score with a header.
There was still time for Khim to entertain the 77,777 fans in the dying minutes when he showed his exquisite skills with a quick double drag-back ala Zidane to bewilder the opponents. World-class foot-work!
Every warrior played well in this match but if there is a need to give out Man-of-the-Match award, it would be jointly given to Sebastian and Blackburn.
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