Kenny's brace and Toh's header inspired fight-back in 3-3 draw

Displaying true never-say-die attitude, ARFC snapped its rare 2-consecutive match defeats by drawing 3-3 against its Chinese opponents.  The draw was a cruel result for ARFC who dominated the match and created a clutch of chances throughout the match.

ARFC was once again supported by Shidah and Aqeel, lovely queen and lively prince of Ismail, Hee’s woman Melissa and Ron’s OC Lingzhi.

ARFC started with this line-up:

Keeper - Commanding Ismail

Right-back - Marauding Guoxiong

Sweeper - Astute-reading sweeper Elvis

Stopper - Towering Toh (captain)

Left-back - Unbeatable Darren

Left-mid - Speedy Hee

Centre-mid - Unpredictable Blackburn  

Centre-mid - Sublime Khim  

Right-mid - Talisman Derrick

Striker - Nippy Kenny

Striker - Powerful Alvin

Subs:

Dynamic Soon

Influential Sebastian

Combative Ron  

Steely Tze Ern

Absent:

ARFC Scoring Legend Haron

Wonder Wayne

Impeccable How Meng

Dependable Jinzhong

Hard-man Tjioe

Immaculate Indra

Booming Boon

For probably the first time, 4 top-grade ARFC central midfielders were the substitutes as team manager wanted Blackburn to pair up with Khim.

ARFC started the match furiously and Derrick soon continued his mediocre scoring run by missing as easy chance.

Alvin then followed suit when unmarked just at the 6-yard box, he headed the ball over the bar from a great cross by Kenny.

ARFC then conceded a goal. 0-1

ARFC then sluggish and team manager Sebastian decided enough is enough and brought on the 4 top guns, replacing Blackburn, Derrick, Hee and Elvis.

Things improved a little with Kenny and Alvin combining very well upfront.

From another counter-attack, the opponents scored again. 0-2

In the 2^nd half, Toh came close from Sebastian’s corner when his header just went 77mm over the bar.

The scoring luck continued to desert Derrick when he picked up a loose ball in the box but his toe-poke eluded everyone but not the upright. Really wrenched scoring run.

Frustrated with himself, Derrick then substituted himself.

The opponents then scored another goal. 0-3 and things looked really dead for ARFC.

ARFC then rallied and Kenny started the come-back when he turned and struck a long-range missile about 40 metres from the right. 1-3 and this was Kenny’s 43^rd ARFC goal.

Kenny then grabbed his brace from a similar distance but this time from the left. His rocket then dipped under the bar, giving their keeper no chance at all. 2-3 and this was Kenny’s 44^th ARFC goal.

Elvis then came up with 2 crucial block as ARFC was focusing on finding the equalizer.

Kenny almost scored a hat-trick after he was set free by Alvin. Their keeper, however, charged out and made himself big and blocked Kenny’s low shot.

With 77 seconds to go, Khim’s corner to the far post was met by Toh who dashed in from the blindside to knock in a downward header that bounced onto the floor and hit the roof of the net. 3-3 and this was Toh’s 78^th ARFC goal.

The whole stadium crowd then went berserk and Toh was mobbed by 15 SYTs after the match.

Voting results:

Kenny – 13

Khim – 10

Tze Ern – 9

Elvis – 4

Soon – 3

Hee – 3

Toh – 1

Sebastian – 1

Guoxiong – 1