Tong gave himself a belated birthday present with a goal in 2-1 victory

Playing its 22^nd Veterans match on 11 Aug 2019 at 5 pm at the St. Patrick’s School pitch, ARFC Veterans edged out The Weekenders 2-1 courtesy of a late penalty from Sebastian.

ARFC Veterans was watched by Lingzhi (Ron’s beau), Yanxiu (Huiming’s wife), Tiara/Dylan (Elvis’ children), Reyes and Rodelle (Darren’s kids).

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

GK – Sunny (Guest GK)

RB – Huiming

Sweeper – Ron

Stopper – Eng Lai

LB – David

RM – Tong

CM – Sebastian

CM – Soon

LM - Darren

SC – Haron

SC – Derrick

Subs:

Chua

Daniel Fonseca

Toh

Elvis

Tze Ern

Strangely enough, ARFC Veterans struggled in the opening exchanges and could not get its rhythm at all. Passes went astray and opponents pegged us back.

From the 10^th min onwards, ARFC Veterans began to get a hold of the match which was epitomised by a 37-metre foray from David who brought the ball upfield from his left-back position before slicing a sweet through ball to Haron just outside the box.  Haron turned and struck a shot at goal but he was incorrectly ruled offside.

7 mins later, Derrick made a diagonal run down the right flank to receive the ball from Tong.  From the right byeline, Derrick sidefooted a lofted ball right to the most dangerous spot (between the 6-yard box and penalty spot).  Haron timed his run perfectly from blind side and met the ball emphatically and powerfully with his forehead.  Every ARFC Veterans was already shouting for goal when their GK miraculously produced a stunning block!

Daniel Fonseca, Chua, Tze Ern, Elvis and Toh then replaced Haron, Huiming, Tong, Ron and Eng Lai at the 20^th min mark.

Chances were at a premium in the first half which ended goalless.

In the 2^nd half, ARFC Veterans started strongly and began to carve out chances.

7 mins after the restart, Toh was dragged down by their defender in the box before he could meet Sebastian’s free-kick.  However, the inept referee, who had a really poor match with his basketball-like refereeing (blew a foul for each and every contact), somehow failed to spot the clear foul.

ARFC Veterans was then indebted to Huiming who produced a stunning block to deny their striker who was going to pull the trigger.  Wonderful old horse!

ARFC Veterans finally drew the first blood in the 55^th min.  From a free-kick on the left, Sebastian curled in a dangerous-looking ball right into the crowded penalty box.  Both Toh and Darren exerted pressure on the opponents by going for the ball.  The ball was only half clear and bounced to Tong who was just 1 metre away.  Instinctively, Tong reacted quickest when he planted a looping header over all the players and the ball nestled nicely at the far post.  1-0 and Tong gave himself a belated birthday present with his 27^th ARFC goal.

Tong’s last goal for the team was on 21 Apr 2018 when he netted in a 4-3 win.

However, ARFC Veterans conceded the equaliser almost immediately. 1-1

ARFC Veterans continued to press hard and was really unlucky on 2 occasions.

First, Sebastian’s long-range free-kick from 47 metres looked to be swirling away from their GK when the ball dipped neat the goalpost but somehow, their GK stuck out a strong hand to palm the ball away for a corner.

Next, From Tze Ern’s wonderful free-kick, Derrick twisted his neck to glance a superb header to the bottom right corner. Everybody was already shouting “GOAL” when their GK denied ARFC Veterans again with a similar save as before to concede a corner.

With 10 mins to go, ARFC Veterans finally regained the lead thanks in large part to Derrick’s cunningness.

Derrick held the ball up brilliantly at the left touchline area in the box.  Sensing that their defender was closing in on him, Derrick waited for him to come near before turning away from him.  Their defender then touched Derrick who fell immediately and the referee atoned for his error by blowing for a penalty.

Sebastian stepped up and placed his usual penalty kick routine to the same spot – bottom left corner.  2-1 and this was Sebastian’s 114^th ARFC goal.

ARFC Veterans then held on for a hard-fought but well-deserved victory.

With this win, ARFC Veterans maintained its 100% record in 2019 – 7 wins out of 7 matches.