Wayne propelled ARFC to victory in its 600th match (open team)

Supported by Lingzhi (Ron’s beau), Tiara and Dylan (Elvis’ princess and prince), ARFC finally ended its 4-match winless streak with an exciting 5-4 win over V2.

ARFC was dealt a cruel blow before the match as 1^st-choice GK Derrick pulled out just minutes before the match.

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

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

ARFC started strongly, with Wayne very springly in his movements upfront.

However, ARFC received a huge set-back when Guoxiong pulled up with a groin strain and as replaced by Benard.

Nevertheless, ARFC was not affected and it was no surprise that ARFC took the lead through Wayne in the 7^th min.

From How Meng’s long drop-kick, Ron won the aerial duel and flicked the ball goalwards.  Wayne burst clear and duly slotted the ball home for his 38^th ARFC goal. 1-0

ARFC doubled its lead 7 mins later with Wayne again the scorer.  From yet another long kick from How Meng, Rashid brought the ball down nicely to Wayne who exchanged great wall-passes with Blackburn.  With a neat flick that caught their defence flat-footed, Blackburn put Wayne through who simply could not miss as he placed the ball home for his 39^th ARFC goal. 2-0

ARFC tripled its lead 5 mins later with a world-class team goal.  Again, How Meng’s long goal kick caused havoc as his long ball found Hee on the right midfield area. Thouh the ball was very high, Hee executed brilliant technique when he chested the high ball down and passed to Rashid.  After exchanging 1-2 with Blackburn, Rashid released Wayne down the right flank.  Wayne sped clear and squared the ball across to the onrushing Blackburn who tapped in from close range. 3-0 and this was Blackburn’s 162^nd ARFC goal.

In the 2^nd half, Guoxiong gamely volunteered to be GK though he could not run at all. Wonderful team player!

Even though Guoxiong could not run, he made a world-class save when he got down very sharply to turn a low shot over the post for a corner.

ARFC let up a little and soon conceded a goal. 3-1

ARFC’s pedigree told as it quickly regained its 3-goal advantage albeit with a little bit of luck.  From some pressure, Haron passed to Alvin in the box whose quick snap-shot was spilled by their GK.   As the ball was rolling slowly into the net, and in his desperation, their GK tried to scoop the bal away but only succeeded in turning the ball faster into the net.  4-1 and this was Alvin’s 309^th ARFC goal.

ARFC looked to have put the result to bed with its 5^th goal in the match.  From quick pressure on the right, the ball rolled to Tze Ern who was lurking just inside the box.  With a quick switch of his feet, Tze Ern swiveled and side-footed a left-foot grounder that hit the bottom right corner.  5-1 and this was Tze Ern’s 16^th ARFC goal, putting him on level terms with Raymond.

Tze Ern’s reward for scoring? He was immediately replaced as he needed to pick up his wife and children. What a great father!

Strangely enough, ARFC then allowed the opponents to score 3 quick goals to lead by 5-4 and did just enough to hold on to the narrow victory.

Voting results:

Wayne – 12

Ron – 11

Blackburn – 8

How Meng – 8

Soon – 3

Eng Lai – 1

Rashid – 1

Guoxiong – 1