Following our opening defeat last week in the league, we faced last year’s runners-up, Red Devils. They are definitely no pushovers as they had challenged hard for the title last season, only to lose it by the thinnest of margins. It was our very first meeting with them and we were not in the best of shape as we had only 15 players on game day. The message was clear from the manager, do our best to win this game or the season will be tough for us.
We kicked off and were so slow to start that we quickly conceded 2 goals within 10 minutes. A defensive mistake at the back by Kenny allowed their striker to ping the ball into the bottom corner from the edge of the box for the first goal. Minutes later, a seemingly innocuous run down our right got a wicked deflection off Dave and spun into the corner over Sherman. 2 goals down and heads again went down. A managerial masterstroke then took place. Colin took himself off, put Max in and pushed Pikachu upfront. The difference was stark and it told when Max sent a ball over to Benny on the left. Benny cut back in and shot low. The goalkeeper could only parry the ball and it landed to Pikachu who gleefully tapped it in. Heads came up and coupled with Max pulling the strings, we created opportunities after opportunities. Pikachu was working hard to get to the end of the balls and one particular shielding of the ball got him fouled in the box. Penalty! Captain stepped up and looked around. Strangely, no calls were made to take it. Captain then unconvincingly placed the penalty to the left to equalise. Half time came soon after and we came off the field level.
Half time talk was all about putting in the efforts and getting the ball quicker off to the forwards. The morale was going up and it was clear that we were the stronger team.
2nd half kicked off. We had more chances. Yiong was doing very well, combining with Dave on the right. A good move led to Yiong going down the line and a cross was agonisingly missed by all in the box. Max was being targeted as we aimed every ball to him. He got a free kick at the right of the box. Captain swung in the free kick and Pikachu went for it. It got blocked and landed at his feet again. This time, he calmly slotted it past the goalkeeper for his second goal. Despite our possession, the opponents had many chances of their own. Led by both their strong strikers and our own mistakes, they had a couple of chances which Sherman did well to keep out. One miss by Jansen led their big striker on a one on one with Sherman and under pressure, he shot straight at Sherman. The defence was working hard while out midfield was covering a lot of ground. Even Dave got into the act. He latched onto a loose ball at the edge of the box and let fly. The goalkeeper could only half saved it and in came Pikachu with the wildest of mis kick managed to wrong foot the entire defence and the ball trickled into the net for his hat trick. We rode out the remaining game time with stout defending and opponent’s poor finishing. Final score 4-2.
It was a good reaction to the result last week as we bounced back with a decisive victory. But it could have been different, if we had been punished for our poor defending earlier on. We miskicked, mistimed tackles and headers, stood still and basically didn’t communicate well enough. We have to improve on this. It’s not every week that we were let off for all these mistakes. Much credit must be given to Pikachu for his overall effort and goals. Regardless, it was still a great team performance, with plenty of effort and energy. Well done team.
