We were back to Sembawang Secondary School for the second time in 2 weeks. Vivid memories of our last defeat were still lingering in my head while driving towards this ground.
We lost a couple of players for this game prior to the game on Saturday. Joseph pulled out firstly for personal reason, Kee and Jerome have to withdraw due to the passing of their Father/Grandfather-in-law and Matt has to withdraw due to illness. Nick made his return after months of laid off due to work and study commitments.
Our starting lineups for this game were:-
Keeper: SK
Defense: Jiunn/Ben/Lawrence/Nick
Midfield: Daryl/Ron/Jeff/Jason
Forward: Harold/Henry
We played Bolton Veterans back in September at Yio Chu Kang last year wining 5-3 and Yew Boon was the MoM in that game
With this information in mind, we deployed a 4-4-1-1 formation as this will allow us to attack the opponent with pace and gave us domination in midfield. The objective to the team was to keep a clean sheet as I recalled they were quite fortunate to score 3 against us the last time round.
We made a very quick start and Henry scored while the game was only at the 90+ second’s period. That was probably the fastest goal we ever scored in club history. Jason attempted a long shot from 35 yards, it looked harmless when travelling towards the keeper but somehow he fumbled. Henry pounded the spilled and he put the ball into the empty net. He scored again 10 minutes later with another assist from Jason. A well weighted through ball to Henry and he finished the move with precision from 20 yards out. What a quick start and everything seemed to go according to our pre-game plan.
Bolton scored while the game was midway in the half. A defensive mixed up allowed their striker to place a lob over the advancing SK from 22 yards out.
Shortly after we conceded, I swapped Lawrence for Henry to play in the most forward role and he made an immediate impact by scoring after coming on 5 minutes into the game. Yiong made an important assist as he was charging into the box with purpose and strength. Richard scored 3 minutes later with a surging run from midfield and fired an unstoppable shot into the back of the opposition’s net.
We rectified some areas that I wanted the team to focus on especially when we were delivering and converting our free kicks.
Bolton Veterans scored 11 minutes after the restart. A poor clearance from Stan in our half rebounded off one of their player and the ball fell kindly into the striker’s path while in an offside position. The referee failed to spot the offside infringement and he raced on to score with only SK to beat.
I made some reshuffling to the attacking personnel and they responded with 2 splendid goals converted by Harold and Andy respectively. Jason provided an exquisite long ball to Lawrence from inside our half as he controlled and floated a inviting cross to the right evading all Bolton Veteran’s defenders. Harold was well position on the right wing as he steadied himself and fired a low shot into the bottom of the net. Andy converted a back heel point blank goal after Harold worked his way down the byline and sent in an unstoppable cross evading the diving keeper. We were 6-2 up at this point.
Daryl still has time to score our 7th goal just before the final whistle. Like the last goal he scored in his previous game, a powerful right footer shot that left the opposition keeper at full stretch.
I was pleased with the team reactions after our last defeat and this is definitely the right way to respond. Overall, everyone has a good run out and I think this victory will set up nicely for our next game.
The man of the match for this game is Jason for his dynamic work rates on the left side and his involvement in 3 of our 7 goals haul.
Keep up the good work, Team!
