ARFC Veterans missed a glut of chances to win 4-3

Playing its 8^th veteran match, ARFC Veteran Team bounced back from its first defeat with a complacent 4-3 win over Mike’s Team.

ARFC Veterans welcomed Huiming back after his ankle injury from last month’s match but he had to be contented with a place in the substitutes’ bench.

ARFC Veterans started with this line-up:

GK – Haron

RB – Chua

Sweeper – Eng Lai

Stopper – Toh (captain)

LB – Qingxing

RM – Raymond

CM – Tong

CM – Soon

LM – Darren

SC – Blackburn

SC – Derrick

Subs:

Sebastian (dead leg)

Daniel

Huiming

ARFC Veterans started confidently and was in total control with some neat passing.  In the 5^th min, ARFC took the lead courtesy of a long punt down the right.  Derrick cleverly checked his run (as he was in an offside position) to allow Raymond to dash in from deep.  Seeing Tong calling for the ball, Raymond smartly cut the ball back from the by-line and Tong came in to side-foot the ball home. 1-0 and this was Tong’s 26^th ARFC goal.

2 mins later, ARFC Veterans doubled its lead.  Blackburn’s short corner to Derrick saw the latter returning the ball to him.  Blackburn’s swinging ball then saw Darren tapping the ball past their bewildered GK. 2-0 and this was Darren’s 13^th ARFC goal.

Sebastian then came in for the tiring Tong, while Huiming and Daniel replaced Toh and Blackburn respectively.

Within 77 seconds of coming on, Sebastian created ARFC Veterans’ 3^rd goal. Sebastian took a quick throw-in on the right over their left-back and Raymond urned past him and duly lifted the ball over their GK to the far corner.  3-0 and this was Raymond’s 11^th ARFC goal and his 1^st goal in 2018.

ARFC then conceded a goal. 3-1

ARFC restored its 3-goal cushion from Sebastian’s corner on the left.  The corner created mayhem in the box and Soon’s flick-backwards ball bounced into the net.  4-1 and this was Soon’s 77^th ARFC goal and his 1^st goal for ARFC Veterans.

Eng Lai then whipped in a vicious corner that saw the ball not cleared by their defence.  However, Derrick’s shot was blocked on the line.

Sebastian then fired in a long shot that clearly struck the hand of their defender but the referee waved the penalty appeal away. Probably, the referee was being very lenient as the opponents were already trailing by 3 goals.

Raymond then flicked at least 3 headers to Derrick but all his 3 attempts were thwarted or missed.

Derrick then chipped in a ball for Sebastian to break their off-side trap but Sebastian’s low shot was blocked.

From Derrick’s cut-back, Sebastian’s side-foot placed-shot hit the cross-bar and out.

In the 2^nd half, ARFC Veterans continued its control and dominance with so many chances created.

Tong was unlucky to hit the post while Sebastian just volleyed over.

Daniel then missed a couple of chances while Raymond saw his goal-bound shot brilliantly saved by their GK.

Of course, Derrick then proceeded to top it all by missing at least 5-6 chances with the majority of those chances created by Darren who played like a flying Ryan Giggs.

The opponents then pulled 2 goals back to lose 4-3 eventually.

Daniel then suffered a minor injury after an aerial challenge and was replaced by Toh who played as a striker.

It was good to see Qingxing putting in an assured performance at left-back, while Eng Lai led the defence well.

Credit to Haron too for volunteering to be GK for the whole match.

Though ARFC Veterans won the match, the attitude in the 2^nd half was rather appalling as many played with much complacency. ARFC Veterans would have to do much better in the next match.