Wayne inspires ARFC 4-1 victory over Republic Poly staff team

Playing on a rare Monday night, ARFC totally outplayed the Republic Poly staff team 4-1 after an inspirational performance from Wayne.

The match was played in an unusual 3 30-min durations as requested by the opponents.

ARFC started with this line-up:

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

ARFC opened the scoring in the 7^th min.  Wayne, who is probably the most-improved ARFC warrior in 2017, sped down the left flank before delivering a cross to Alvin.  Alvin took a slight touch to Soon who made a Paul Scholes-like run before side-footing the ball high into the net. 1-0 and this was Soon’s 75^th ARFC goal.

ARFC doubled its lead 7 mins later.  Alvin swung in a deep hanging cross from the left and Guoxiong, who was a constant menace down the right flank, anticipated the ball by stealing in from the blind side to nip the ball away from their defender.  With a sharp and neat swivel, Guoxiong drilled the ball into the far side of the goal for his 28^th ARFC goal. 2-0

Alvin then failed ARFC when he just couldn’t lay the ball to Sebastian who was lurking inside the box and the ball was clear.

Incredulously, Alvin repeated this but this time, he incurred the wrath of Blackburn.

ARFC then conceded a break-away goal. 2-1.

In the 2^nd 30-min half, Alvin exchanged passes with Darren before making his way to the left BY-LINE.  Latching on to Alvin’s neat cut-back from the BY-LINE, Haron showed his predatory instinct when he glided in to sweep the ball home with his left foot.  To the shock, amazement and anger of the whole ARFC and its 77,777 supporters who were watching the match live, the referee ruled that Haron was off-side!!!

Every footballer would tell you that a ball from the BY-LINE would never ever be off-side.

Sebastian then played square-pass with Rashid before swinging in a Beckham-like hanging cross into the box.  Haron read the ball but just headed wide.

In the 3^rd 30-min half, Tze Ern pressured their right-back into making an under-hit back pass to their GK.  Haron intercepted the ball and squared to Wayne who gleefully tucked the ball home for his 32^nd ARFC goal.  3-1

Derrick then made his by-now routine one-to-one save every match when he got down like Pepe Reina to keep out a certain goal.

ARFC then scored its 4^th goal in the match after some gengen-pressing which saw Darren, Alvin and Wayne facing their GK and defender only.  After a series of yo-yo passes which saw the trio pass to each other to let the opponents see stars, Wayne placed the ball home for his 33^rd ARFC goal. 4-1

Voting results:

Wayne – 8

Derrick – 8

Elvis – 5

Guoxiong – 5

Soon – 5

Eng Lai – 4

Ron – 3

Alvin – 2

Haron – 1

Darren – 1

Derrick's world-class triple save in 5-0 win

Playing the team from furniture giant Court for the first time, ARFC send them packing with a comprehensive 5-0 demolition job.  The victory, however, came at a huge cost as all ARFC warriors and family were banned from buying furniture at Courts henceforth.

As first-choice GK Derrick as late as he was entertaining PRCs, Chun Haw started in goal first. 

ARFC started with this line-up:

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

ARFC drew first blood after Alvin’s corner was punched away by their GK.  However, Toh was first to the rebound and headed home his 98^th ARFC goal. 1-0.

In the 33^rd min, Alvin picked up a loose ball at the half-way line and released Haron with a sublime through ball.  Haron did not disappoint as he summoned his last ounce of energy by sprinting in and dinked the ball over their advancing GK for his 247^th ARFC goal. 2-0

Chun Haw then made a few assuring catches before Derrick turned up and replaced him.

Derrick then once again showed why he is a late-bloomer as a GK when he produced a brilliant one-handed save that even drew much applause from the opponents. 

In the 57^th min, Toh was shoved to the ground by their defender rather clumsily.  Blackburn me a 77-metre sprint, brushed aside all aspiring penalty-takers and took the spot-kick. Blackburn then calmly dispatched the ball to their GK’s right for his 155^th ARFC goal. 3-0

In the 67^th min, in his typical fashion, Ron robbed the opponent from the centre half and played Chun Haw in with a world-class piercing through ball to the left.  Chun Haw then exchanged wall-passed with the increasingly-impressive Wayne before slotting home his 66^th ARFC goal. 4-0.

Wayne was then very unlucky when his Fandi-like scissor kick struck the post!

ARFC then put the icing on the cake in the 69^th min.  From Eng Lai’s laser-sharp corner, Ron swopped in and planted a firm header with much aplomb past their stunned GK for his 13^th ARFC goal. 5-0

Derrick then made the save of the season in the last min of the match.  First, he made a save and when the rebound fell to the opponents, he made a stunning recovery block.  From the 2^nd rebound, everybody thought the opponent would score but Derrick defy all logic and profound everyone in the world with a lagi stunning reaction save.  Triple-save!

Voting results:

Derrick – 12

Blackburn – 8

Soon – 5

Ron – 4

Chun Haw – 4

Toh – 3

Chua – 3

Eng Lai – 2

Khim – 1