Kenny’s 90th ARFC goal in 2-5 defeat

 Playing its 39^th Veterans match overall, ARFC Veterans was played out once again by the referee organiser and lost 2-5 to a very young team, Sky Venture on 29 Jun 2025 at 3 pm at Tampines SAFRA. 

 

ARFC veterans had to call up a guest GK, Nash, as regular GK Derrick was away in Bangkok for his 4^thhoneymoon (not same wife but 4^th different wives).

 

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

 

GK – Nash (guest GK)

RB – Guoxiong

Sweeper – Ron

Stopper – Toh (Captain)

LB – Tze Ern

RM – Raymond

CM – Rashid

CM – Tjioe

LM – Khim

SC – Haron

SC – Kenny

 

Subs:

 

Sebastian

Eng Lai

Chua

Wayne

Elvis

 

ARFC drew first blood within 10 seconds when straight from the kick-off, Raymond pressured their defender who made a poor back pass to their GK.   Raymond intercepted the ball and rolled it into the unguarded net.

 

1-0 and this was Raymond’s 27^th ARFC goals, with a whopping 20 goals coming from Veterans matches.

 

Toh then won the ball with a great tackle in midfield and passed to Haron. Haron showed fantastic vision when he nonchalantly lofted the ball over their defence for Kenny.  Alas, Kenny’s attempted lob was clawed away by the out-stretched arms of their GK.

 

Kenny then returned the favour with a brilliant chip to the right that saw Haron swivelled and volleyed just 0.99 mm over the bar.

 

Haron was unlucky yet again when his header from Rashid’s precise corner was cleared off the line.

 

Suddenly, the opponents equalised. 1-1.

 

Rashid’s corner was then headed back by the defender to him.  With a brilliant floating ball from Rashid, Wayne showed immerse bravery when he challenged for the ball with their GK but saw his header thumped off the crossbar! 

 

The referee then made the mistake of the century in football.  Raymond again chased after an under-hit back pass and managed to reach it ahead of their GK.  As the ball rolled towards the byeline, and with their GK rooted to his spot, Raymond managed to keep the ball in play with at least a metre to spare, and rolled the ball into the net.  To the huge surprise of everyone, the referee blew for a goal-kick when he was near the centre circle!!!!!

 

With virtually the last kick of the half, the opponents then scored from a quick break-away goal to lead 2-1 at half-time.

 

During half-time, Raymond tried to reason with the referee who simply refused to acknowledge his mistake (even though the opposing GK admitted that the ball did not go out of play) and to make matters worse, the referee simply walked off.

 

In the 2^nd half, ARFC Veterans were obviously affected which was made worse by the tiredness.  Hence, it was no surprise that the opponents scored 3 more goals to lead 5-1.

 

ARFC Veterans did not give up though.  From the left, Kenny received a ball from Darren and shifted the ball to his trusted right foot before curling the ball home to the top right corner, sparking wild celebrations from Joy and his 4 children who were watching from the sidelines.

 

2-5 and this was Kenny’s 90^thgoal, with 6 coming from veterans matches.

 

Rashid then executed a reverse through ball for Raymond but just before he could get a good footing, Raymond suffered cramps and could not get a clean shot in, much to the relief of their GK who pushed the ball away for a corner.

 

Wayne then received a well-weighted lofted ball from Kenny but after rounding their GK, Wayne somehow shot wide with the goal gaping!

 

 

These are the top 5 scorers only for ARFC Veterans’ 39 matches:

 

1. Raymond – 20 goals
2. Haron – 17 goals
3. Darren – 13 goals
4. Sebastian – 13 goals
5. Soon – 12 goals