Match Brief: #11/9 Mar: Late Burst Secured A Comfortable Win Things looked nervy for us until a tactical change in the final 10 minutes of the match produced 2 late goals to kill off any further comeback from Red LC (No, LC is not referring to the Hokkien pronunciation of a male anatomy but its with regards to their tardiness, thus Late Comers!) Things did look comfortable for us at the break, with us securing a 2-0 lead although the goals only came late in the first half from Teck Chye, after he had replaced Mike on the 30th-minute mark. We could have opened the account right in the first minute but Kian Hwa scooped the ball high over the bar from less than a yard from the goal mouth after he had dashed into the box to meet Teck Wahs low cross from the right. Red LCs playmaker, No 10, looked threatening whenever he had the ball but the support from his team mates was lacking when it mattered. Despite their unsteady backline, we somehow failed to find a decent breakthrough until Brandon came to the fore. A great drop-kick from him sent the ball over the entire defence and found Teck Wah free on the left. TW cut the ball back to his right foot before sending in a grounder across the penalty box for Teck Chye to meet it in perfect timing and that resulted in our opening goal. The brothers combined again for our 2nd goal with Teck Wah again providing the assist with a through ball for Teck Chye to face RLCs keeper one-on-one and Teck Chye won the encounter. 2-0! RLC roared to life after the break and their No 10 was a constant menace to us. It didnt help when our 2nd halfs central defensive pairing of Chwee Leng and Kok Hock was somewhat not imposing enough to counter No 10s trickery and strength. He first latched onto a through pass and out-muscled Chwee Leng before shooting with such power with his cultured left foot to give Brandon no chance at near post. 2-1. RLC were certainly inspired by the goal and stepped up their pressure on us. Again, Brandon came to our rescue on 2 counts. Offensively, another long punt from him put the ball straight into the opposite penalty box. RLCs defender was guilty of not clearing the ball first-time and accidentally handled the ball from the bounce. Despite strong protests from RLC players, the referee pointed to the spot without any hesitation and Teck Chye made no mistake from the conversion to register his hat-trick. 3-1. Defensively, Brandon brilliantly tipped their No 10s stinging left-foot shot over the bar for a corner, with No 10 looking poised to produce a replica of his first goal. A sloppy piece of defending gifted their 2nd goal and again allowed them to rekindle their belief of a fight-back. Nobody managed to clear a throw-in into our box. With the ball taking a bounce, their right-winger, who was quiet throughout his play time on the pitch, managed to out-jump both Chwee Leng and Kok Hock to head the ball over Brandon and into the net. 3-2 and things looked close again. If RLC had their share of luck, it was our turn at the other end. A corner was cleared out to as far as Ng outside the box. His attempted left-foot shot went hopelessly off tangent but Woon was alert to meet the miscued ball first-time with his weaker foot to beat the keeper at the far post. 4-2. RLC refused to take all these lying down and they were spirited to keep pushing for goals. And they did it again. No 10 was in the thick of action again when his pass breached our defence line and his fellow striker followed up to place the ball past Brandon. 4-3. The pendulum appeared to swing to their favour but Gan came back in, with 15 minutes left to play, to shore up the defence with great effectiveness. Then, a final substitution in the last 10 minutes of the match proved vital. KH re-entered into the match for the depleted Simon, who was almost running on empty tank by then, and switched Weng Khong, under-utilised on the left, to take over Simon in central midfield. Minutes later, the tactical switch bore fruits...aplenty. KH, in his own half, met a long clearance from their keeper with a firm header that sent the ball back to Teck Wah just outside the penalty box. Teck Wah was given so much space and time to let the ball settle down before planting a left-foot shot that had the ball sailed to the far post, with the keeper stranded at the near post. 5-3. RLC then committed the same mistake of allowing Teck Wah the luxury of space and time again when nobody closed him down way outside the box. With the defenders distracted by Teck Chyes call for Teck Wah to send the ball to the left for KH, Teck Wah capitalised on RLCs tentative defending and measured up a long shot that beat their tall keeper rather easily. 6-3. These 2 quick goals killed off any remaining spirit in RLC to the extent that even their No 10 decided it was a lost cause and got himself substituted.
Posted on: Mon, 10 Mar 2014 07:20:32 +0000
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