Soon, Toh and Tjioe in Iron-Man-like performance in 3-2 win

In an exciting and thrilling with end-to-end action throughout, ARFC emerged 3-2 victors against table-topper Falcon FC with a last-grasp winner from Haron. 

ARFC suffered a crushing set-back when reigning ARFC player of the year Ron had to withdraw due to “pressing teh-teh issue”.

However, the huge loss was mitigated when ARFC received a huge boost after ARFC top-scorer Alvin agreed to play as he wanted to slowly assimilate his lovely daughter, Germaine, to play for ARFC eventually. 

ARFC received further boost when ARFC 2^nd top-scorer Haron also turned up after rejecting his hot date with Ning Maizura.

ARFC started with this 4-1-4-1 line-up: 

Jersey no.	Name	Position
45	Commanding Ismail	Goalkeeper
16	Marauding Guoxiong	Right-back
15	Towering Toh (captain)	Sweeper
77	Dependable Jinzhong	Stopper
6	Unbeatable Darren	Left-back
28	Hard-man Tjioe	Centre-mid
11	Speedy Hee	Left-mid
4	Dynamic Soon	Centre-mid
8	Talented Chun Haw	Centre-mid
17	Nippy Kenny	Right-mid
99	Powerful Alvin	Striker
Subs:
2	Unpredictable Blackburn
9	ARFC Scoring Legend Haron
20	Composed Eng Lai
31	Vintage Chua
66	Wonder Wayne
Absent:
3	Astute-reading sweeper Elvis
5	Impeccable How Meng
7	Influential Sebastian
10	Sublime Khim
14	Combative Ron
18	Determined Huiming
19	Skillful Weilit
21	Rampaging Raymond
33	Talisman Derrick
78	Steely Tze Ern

In the 9^th min, Chun Haw pinged a lovely ball into the box for Tjioe who had forayed into the box. However, Tjioe’s delicate lifted ball over their GK was just 0.07 mm wide! Unlucky! 

In the 17^th min, the opponents scored from a counter-attack. 0-1

ARFC then drew level in the 19^th min. Alvin, who was clearly inspired by the presence of Germaine, was fouled just outside the box.  Dusting himself off the ground, Alvin curled a world-class bender ala Zico that flew past the out-stretched arms of their GK. 1-1 and this was Alvin’s 280^th ARFC goal. 

Naturally, Alvin celebrated his goal by sprinting straight to Germaine and hoisted her up in the air 99 times….. 

ARFC then conceded another goal to trail 1-2 at the break.

From the re-start, ARFC pushed and pressed on all front and was immediately rewarded for its hardwork. Kenny was upended outside the box and Chun Haw lined up to hit a bullet right through the wall. Their GK parried the venomous shot and the rebound fell to Soon. Needing no second invitation, Soon picked up the loose ball, dribbled past their GK and sent the ball into the empty net for his 72^nd ARFC goal. 2-2

The match then saw plenty of goal-mouth action with ARFC taking no less than 77 shots. 

ARFC was also indebted to Ismail who charged out on several occasions to clear the ball away.

With the clock ticking down, ARFC launched a last attack.  Darren, who courageously fought on despite receiving a nasty knock at his left ankle, launched yet another of his trade-mark missile throw-in. Before that, Toh had told Haron to just stay in the penalty area. With his back to the goal and a defender sticking to him like a leech, Toh cleverly headed Darren’s throw-in right into the danger zone in the box.  

Showing his world-class predatory instinct, Haron smelled goal and conjured up all his remaining energy to make a late burst into the box, lunged forward and side-footed the ball through the legs of their GK. 3-2 and this was Haron’s 230^th ARFC goal. 

Haron’s goal sparked off delirious celebration and his reward for scoring? Soon came in for him to stabilise the defence as Haron has no more energy left. 

Voting results:

Soon – 9

Tjioe – 8

Alvin – 7

Kenny – 5

Guoxiong – 4

Jinzhong – 4

Ismail – 2

Darren – 2

Toh – 2

Haron – 1

Eng Lai – 1