First Half
It's our first league game of the year and we were all eager to know how we fare against other veteran teams. A good result would certainly give us the confidence going forward so perhaps that explains our nervy outlook. Looking at the opponents, they certainly had some players we have played against as well as some raring younsters. Getting the first game of the season at Naval Base certainly added to the nervousness as we had some bad luck here in recent times. Can we break the hoodoo this time round? The opponent kicked off the game in a hot evening.
A corner from the opponent ping ponged around in our box and their player took a stab at it and scored via a deflection. Nothing we could have done to keep it out and hard luck on us.
We kept our heads and continued pressing on.
Yiong broke down the left on a slide rule pass from Lawrence and with the keeper coming out, he lifted the ball over the advancing keeper who managed a hand to it but was not strong enough to keep it out. 1-1.
Jason with one of his long throws found Colin who sneaked inbetween the defender and keeper to glance the ball through the keepers hands and we were up 2-1.
One unfortunate incident midway into the first half nearly saw the game getting called off. A tame effort from them towards our goal; and it should have been a routine save, but as mentioned perhaps nervousness, the hot sun and pure bad luck was at play...the ball was dropped and bounced against the goal post. The opponents young aggressive striker really threw his leg in that smashed against Shermans face. We immediately knew that it was bad. Our players rushed in to question the need for that as it was dangerous and the opponents threw a slap against our players. This resulted in some other team members rushing in but luckily our discipline held and the ref managed to gain control after a couple of yellows. At this point our heads and hearts were with our keeper who obviously could not continue (looked like a broken nose) and SK had to step in to take up the keepers glove. We ended the first hald 2-1 up.
Second half
News was starting to filter through from our team mates on the sideline that Sherman our keeper had a broken nose, fractures to his cheekbone and concussion after his scan at the hospital. We told ourselves that we needed to win this game for him.
The game was starting to get scrappy with DK knights getting quite physical in trying to win the ball with some hard tackles from them. On one of these challenges on Juinn (which we thought was a foul) the ball broke to their player on the right who then laid it on to the winger in front of him (which also should be offside) and they crossed into the box for one of their totally free player to tap into the open goal and they were level. We were furious as either one of the two calls should have gone for us and to get two bad calls in a roll for them to score is just ridiculous!
Time was slowing running down and we were eager to get a good result from the game saw us continue our pressing. We were coming into the last 5 mins of the game.
A mix up in the opponents defence saw the ball go out wide to Harold who brought the ball out onto the wing and upon cutting in the defender took him out on the line of the 18 yard box. Penalty! Colin brimming with confidence duly picked the ball up, put it on the spot and blasted it into the net and we held on for the last 5 mins to start the season off with a win.
End Report
Overall a good but tough bloody starting win for us. Playing in a league would definitely be much tougher now and we need to get our act together and start being less nervy. We believe as the games start to roll the situation should improve. Jason gets awarded MOM for his usual non stop combative style winning balls and putting his body on the line. At this point, all our thoughts are with Sherman and we wish you a speedy recovery from that horrific rash challenge. We would also like to remind the team that we do not condone violence on our part nor from the opponents. Our club rules are still in place. Jumping in to defend team mates and pulling it apart amicable is fine. Jumping in to further aggravate the situation is not. Good job that we did not.
Till next week.
