Inspirational Ismail's save of the year in 4-0 win

Ending his 3-match barren run, Alvin dished out an inspiring performance to snap ARFC’s 3-match winless run by running out comfortable 4-0 victors against the Nanyang Polytechnic staff team.

ARFC was supported by Hee’s woman Melissa and Jasper’s girlfriend YY.

ARFC started with this line-up:

Keeper - Commanding Ismail

Right-back - Influential Sebastian (captain)

Sweeper - Astute-reading sweeper Elvis

Stopper - Towering Toh

Left-back - Jasper (guest player)

Left-mid - Weilit (guest player)

Centre-mid - Marauding Guoxiong

Centre-mid - Combative Ron  

Right-mid - Talisman Derrick

Striker - Unpredictable Blackburn 

Striker - Powerful Alvin

Subs:

ARFC Scoring Legend Haron (late)

Dynamic Soon (late)

Speedy Hee (late)

Eng Lai (guest player)

Absent:

Unbeatable Darren

Steely Tze Ern

Sublime Khim  

Nippy Kenny

Wonder Wayne

Impeccable How Meng

Dependable Jinzhong

Hard-man Tjioe

Immaculate Indra

Booming Boon

ARFC showed its intent from the whistle and within 77 seconds, Alvin exchanged wall-passes with Derrick to set the latter free. Unfortunately, Derrick lifted the ball over the bar with their keeper closing in.

Ismail then came to ARFC’s rescue on 2 quick occasions when he was very fast off his line ala Manuel Neuer to clear to clear balls from the opponents.

Derrick then condemned his dismal scoring jinx to history when he again exchanged an one-two with Alvin, set himself free, evaded a tackle and calmly slotted home for his 96^th ARFC goal. 1-0

Ron then hit a fierce rising shot from 47 metres that looked destined for the top left-hand corner until their keeper clawed the ball away for a corner.

The scoreline remained this way as the experienced opponents threatened to score on a couple of occasions.

In the 2^nd half, ARFC quickly doubled its lead after some intricate passing that eventually saw Alvin lofted the ball down the right for the lurking Derrick. Without breaking his stride and in a smooth groove, Derrick centred for Haron to roll the ball into the empty net for his 212^th ARFC goal. 2-0

ARFC put the result beyond any reasonable doubt when Soon’s long reaking ball saw Derrick galloping like a stealth horse down the right flank. Derrick’s square ball was controlled by Alvin who bade his time before placing the ball home for his 238^th ARFC goal. 3-0

Ismail then underlined why he was so highly-valued by all when he produced the save of the year for ARFC.  For probably the first time in the match, ARFC was exposed and their impressive striker sent a delicate chip across goal. Their FT striker looked to have easily scored a header as he was totally unmarked but Ismail looked himself looked extremely big by spreading all his limbs and kept out his header from 0.77 mm from the goal-line! World-class save that all had everybody present at the stadium on their feet!

Unfortunately, Ismail’s queen and prince were not there to witness this world-class save.

Blackburn then out the icing on the cake when Haron released him in the box. Blackburn dithered a little, as usual, before blasting the ball high into the roof of the net for his 139^th ARFC goal. 4-0

Soon could have made it 5 just seconds before the match. Blackburn’s long searching ball from the half-way line saw Soon sprinting in from inside his own half to win the ball ahead of their defender. With just their keeper to beat, however, Soon sliced his shot wide!

Voting results:

Ron – 7

Derrick – 7

Ismail – 6

Alvin – 4

Guoxiong – 3

Hee – 3

Soon – 2

Blackburn – 2

Elvis – 1

Toh – 1