Darren's goal sparked come-from-behind 4-2 victory

Dishing out arguably its best performance for one half, ARFC staged a remarkable come-back with a thrilling 4-2 win over the very competitive Court FC.

ARFC was supported by Lingzhi, Ron’s beau.

ARFC suffered a crushing blow when world-class GK Derrick pulled out due to work.  Luckily, the loss was cushioned by the appearance of Rashid who rushed from his team-building event.

Credit must also go to Haron and Tze Ern for volunteering to be GK for each half.

ARFC started with this 4-4-2 line-up:

Jersey no.	Name	Position
9	ARFC Scoring Legend Haron	Goalkeeper
31	Vintage Chua	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
8	Talented Chun Haw	Left-mid
17	Nippy Kenny	Striker
99	Powerful Alvin (late)	Striker
Subs:
2	Unpredictable Blackburn
12	Remarkable Rashid (late)
78	Steely Tze Ern (late)
xx	Syed (guest player)
Absent:
3	Astute-reading sweeper Elvis
5	Impeccable How Meng
10	Sublime Khim
11	Speedy Hee
18	Determined Huiming
19	Skillful Weilit
20	Composed Eng Lai
21	Rampaging Raymond
28	Hard-man Tjioe
33	Talisman Derrick
45	Commanding Ismail
66	Wonder Wayne
77	Dependable Jinzhong

ARFC was shocked by some very tough challenges from the opponents in the opening 7 mins and could not get its game going.  However, ARFC’s experience told and it began to assert itself in the match.

ARFC created some half-chances with Kenny, Alvin and Chun Haw taking some shot from distance. 

Toh even forayed upfront, went past 2 opponents but drilled his left-foot shot slightly wide.

Haron then pulled off a brilliant save when he tipped their looping shot onto the bar.

However, ARFC then conceded 2 goals from 2 free-kicks in fairly quick succession.  0-2

Rashid then came on for Sebastian with ARFC switching to 4-5-1 formation. 

Despite trailing by 2 goals, ARFC did not panicked at all and came out with guns blazing for the 2^nd half. 

Guoxiong signaled ARFC’s intent when he skillfully brought a high diagonal ball from Chun Haw on the right, and without breaking his stride, fired in a volley which was palmed away by their GK for a corner.

ARFC then earned a corner on the left.  Sebastian’s corner was headed away to the left but Kenny quickly picked up the ball. With a superb swerving left-foot cross to the far side, Darren swooped in and stretched out his right foot to beat their GK. 1-0 and this was Darren’s 12^th ARFC goal. 1-2.

ARFC then won a corner after Chun Haw was clumsily upended by their defender as he chased after a through-ball.  Alvin stepped up and sent their GK the wrong way for his 302^nd ARFC goal. 2-2

By now, ARFC was gaining confidence and momentum while the opponents were clearly shattered and it was hence no surprise when ARFC took the lead for the first time in the 67^th min.

First, Kenny won a challenge and the ball went to the left for Chun Haw.  Chun Haw then demonstrated fancy footwork by going past 2 opponents in very tight space but before he could shoot, Kenny duly rifled the ball into the roof of the net. 3-2 and this was Kenny’s 80^th ARFC goal.

Kenny could have scored his second of the day just 77 seconds later.  A series of intricate passes between Haron, Chun Haw and Rashid saw the latter releasing a piercing perfectly-weighted grounder to Kenny but Kenny inexplicably scooped the ball over.

ARFC then put the result to bed in the 77^th min.  Rashid passed the ball to Haron who brilliantly dummied the ball for Chun Haw to run in from deep. With an exquisite first-touch that saw Chun Haw pulled the ball away from their covering right-back, Chun Haw then thumped the ball home with his left-foot for his 71^st ARFC goal. 4-2

I think credit must also go to ARFC’s defence led ably by Ron.

Voting Results:

Chun Haw – 12

Kenny – 6

Guoxiong – 4

Ron – 4

Darren – 3

Rashid – 2

Haron – 1

Chua – 1

Sebastian – 1

Soon – 1