ARFC's StanChart marathon runners, Soon & Alvin, pillars to victory

Despite just completed their full marathon in the morning, Soon and Alvin still turned up to inspire ARFC to a 2-1 victory over Dark Horse at the pristine pitch at St. Gabriels SS. The match was also witness by regular supporter Melissa, Hee’s beau, and Rio, Ron’s suave son.  

The narow scoreline does not reflect ARFC’s dominance in the match after squandering a clutch of chances.

Besides Soon and Alvin, special mention also to Haron for playing as keeper for ARFC despite only having his “centre-leg” in full functional mode as both his right and left legs are still nursing niggling injuries.

ARFC started with this line-up:

Keeper           -           ARFC Scoring Legend Haron       

Right-back     -           Unpredictable Blackburn

Sweeper         -          Combative Ron

Stopper          -           Towering Toh (captain)

Left-back       -           Unbeatable Darren

Left-mid         -           Speedy Hee

Centre-mid    -           Dynamic Soon

Centre-mid    -           Steely Tze Ern 

Right-mid      -           Talisman Derrick

Striker            -           Nippy Kenny

Striker            -           Talented Chun Haw

Subs

Astute-reading sweeper Elvis

Impeccable How Meng

Dependable Jinzhong

Wonder Wayne

Skillful Weilit

Powerful Alvin

Absent:

Influential Sebastian

Resolute Jasper

Marauding Guoxiong 

Composed Jackson

Hard-man Tjioe

Sublime Khim

Booming Boon

Jiawei

In the 15^th min, ARFC took the lead courtesy of Kenny’s powerful shot from the edge of the penalty box. The opposition keeper got a hand to the shot but could do nothing about it as the spin on the ball was enough for it to continue its path into the back of the net. 1-0 and this was Kenny’s 27^th ARFC goal.

How Meng, Elvis, Weilit and Jinzhong then came in for Blackburn, Toh, Soon and Hee respectively.

It is clear that the opponent’s standard will not be able to match ARFC’s and ARFC should have punished the opposition with more goals. However, it did not happen and the half ended 1-0.

Seeing that the team is having difficulty scoring, Alvin decided to put on his boots and come on for the 2^nd half, despite running his marathon in a very commendable 6 hrs and 15 mins earlier.  Blackburn, Toh and Soon also came back in for the 2^nd half in place of Tze Ern, Ron and Darren.

Within 15 minutes of the 2^nd half, Alvin demonstrated why he is perched nicely atop the ARFC’s goal-scoring chart.  Seizing a mis-judged clearance by their defender, Alvin punished him by thumping a stout right-footer past their keeper for his 214^th ARFC. 2-0.

Instead of building on the momentum, ARFC contrived to miss more chances to add on to the scoreline. ARFC paid the price with 15 mins to go after the opponents scored. 2-1

ARFC’ famed defence then came to the rescue to prevent the opponents from scoring the equaliser.

After the near-escape, ARFC finally woke up from its slumber to continue dominating the game. However, no goals were scored and the game ended with a 2-1 win for ARFC.

The work done by Soon, a seasoned marathon runner who clocked 4 hrs 30 mins this morning and yet played as fresh as a virgin, cannot be undermined as he totally dominated the entire field by closing down and preventing any clear chances for the opposition throughout the game.

Voting results:

Soon – 25 pts

Elvis – 22 pts

Darren – 12 pts

Tze Ern & Chun Haw – 9 pts each

Toh – 7 pts

Jinzhong – 5 pts

Hee – 3 pts

Blackburn & Kenny – 2 pts each