We came into this game with 2 wins back to back. The objective is to get a hat trick win which we have not achieved since I took over management.
We had a few shuffled with the resources prior to the games. However, we still managed to fill in with 18 players with 2 on standby. That showed the strength in depth in our squad recently.
I addressed the team regarding the issues on over registrations in every game. A situation that we as committee have been finding solution to address but it was never an easy one. Presently our solution is for those guys whom have been on standby for 2 weeks in a row will have priority to play in the 3rd game in regardless of whether they miss the cut or not. Also, we will organize a game session to play among ourselves once every quarter if necessary.
Starting line-up for this game was:-
Keeper: JP
Defense: Jiunn / Jason / Kee / Jerome
Midfield: Harold / Lawrence / Jansen / Jeffrey / Matt
Forward: Colin
Our opponent this week was Babe Wanderers this week in Black. They are a group of mix senior and middle-age players.
We didn’t start the game as I was expecting. Very quickly, Babe Wanderers took control of midfield with a deep laying midfielder dedicating the pace of the game. Their game play was simple. Pass and move to the wings and attack us down the flanks. Both our full backs were stretched most of the times. Another area that didn’t quite worked out for us was the center back pairings. I made the decision to play Jason there and maybe the synergy wasn’t there for this game with the other regular CBs. A problem I will address in the future games.
Babe Wanderers scored their first goal in the 7th mins. It has been a while since we conceded this early. The goal was conceded due to JP failing to catch a strike from the striker with conviction.
We started to react and pressed forward. Harold started to find more space with the ball. He attempted a cross from the right after beating the opposition full back with pace down the line. His cross was met by Colin but unfortunately for him, he blasted the ball over from point blank. However, he made amend shortly after. A back pass from the opposition defender to their keeper was chased down by Colin. The keeper attempted clearance hit Colin’s body and was rebounded into an open goal. 1-1 at this point.
We conceded another goal on the 29th minutes. Our defense was stretched again and JP was again called into actions. Unfortunately for him, he didn’t do well to prevent their second goal.
Colin scored again in the 32 minutes after a neat pass from Harold from the middle. We ended the game at 2-2.
We made some changes to the formation in the second half. Unfortunately for us, it just wasn’t our day. We conceded 4 goals in the first 14 minutes. The first goal was conceded in less than a minute from the restart. I don’t wish to point out any individuals for such poor performances as football is a team game. When we conceded 4 goals like that within 14 minutes, the whole team has to bear the responsibility. We haven’t been this bad for a long while and I hope this is just a blip. All players have to reflect and learn from the bad mistakes and not let this happen again.
We scored 2 consolation goals after the 14 minutes of madness. Babe Wanderers started to take their foot off the paddle and this has allowed us to press harder to create and score the 2 goals. Marc scored his 2nd goal for IFC in as many games and Harold scored 7 minutes before time to bring the game to 4-6.
As I said again, I hope this result is a one-off and I hope to find out the characters of the players in the next game. I want to see a positive reaction from the players next week and let’s bounce back from this painful defeat.
Thank you and have a great week ahead.
