ARFC secures 2nd place after 4-2 win over Falcon

Shrugging off last week’s diabolical 0-7 defeat by Tres Dos, aided in large part by the abysmal and very poor referee who was clearly one-sided and totally favoured Tres Dos, ARFC secured 2^nd place in the league after holding on the challenge of League Leaders Falcon 4-2.

The victory was all the more remarkable considering that ARFC was missing so many players and that Weilit was still carrying an ankle injury while Sebastian was still easing his way back to full fitness. Soon also had a niggling pain at his left knee.

ARFC was supported by Rayes and Rachel, lovely children of Darren, as well as perennial supporter Lingzhi, Ron’s beau. 

Prior to the match, first-choice GK Derrick pulled out at the 11^th hour, leaving ARFC with no GK at all.  Thankfully, Eng Lai stepped up to the plate and went on to produce a splendid performance as a GK.

Alvin also turned up despite strong protest from Irene. Weilit also appeared despite still carrying an ankle injury.

ARFC started with this line-up:

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

ARFC drew first blood in the 17^th min when he picked up a ball wide out and far at the left flank.  Mimicking Coutinho, Kenny fired in a long-range curling shot that caught their GK by surprise and landed at the top corner. 1-0 and this was Kenny’s 79^th ARFC goal.

Kenny should have doubled his tally 7 mins later.  After being played in beautifully by Chun Haw, Kenny somehow screwed his shot wide with just their GK to beat.

Kenny then suffered a bad stroke of luck when Sebastian’s pin-point free-kick saw Kenny planted a looping header over their GK.  However his goal was wrongly ruled out for off-side!

The opponents then scored from a quick counter-attack.  1-1

ARFC then regained the lead thanks in large part to Alvin’s bravery.  Alvin took a huge blow when their fiercely-hit free-kick struck Alvin right full-on into his face.  The ball then rebounded to the lurking Xavier, who was very impressive upfront, who then went on to beat 3 defenders before dispatching a low shot into the net. 2-1 and this was Xavier’s debut ARFC goal. 2-1

In the 2^nd half, ARFC had to weather some storming attacks from Falcon and its defence of Toh, Ron, Chua and Darren were really brilliant with so many crucial blocks. 

ARFC then scored its 3^rd goal after some intense pressure from Alvin.  After winning the ball on the left, Alvin then sprayed the ball across to Kenny who sped down the right bye-line before cutting back for the on-rushing Chun Haw.  Without breaking his stride, Chun Haw simply rifled the ball into the roof of the net with their GK totally stunned and rooted to the spot.  3-1 and this was Chun Haw’s 61^st ARFC goal.

Chun Haw and Alvin then combined again to extend ARFC’s lead.  Chun Haw, who was totally inspirational, found Alvin on the left.  Alvin powered inwards and squared the ball to Xavier who had the simplest of task to side-foot the ball into the empty net. 4-1.

Xavier then nearly notched a hat-trick but his chip over their on-rushing GK was cleared off the line by their covering defender. Unlucky!

Towards the end, ARFC warriors were clearly tiring as there were not enough substitutes. Thankfully, its grittiness and determination, epitomised by Soon’s re-entry despite hobbling with his bad left knee, propelled ARFC to the finishing line though it did concede a goal. 4-2

Voting results:

Chun Haw – 8

Ron – 8

Toh – 8

Kenny – 4

Eng Lai – 4

Chua – 3

Alvin – 1