Our pre-season warm up continues this week with a gallant performance against a young Tebing Tigers team. The blistering hot afternoon was clearly not the conditions that we were looking forward to. Ron was visibly exhausted when he arrived at the game, having walked from the entrance of the pitch to the shade, where he continuously muttered “damn hot, damn hot”. Slowly, one by one, our team STROLLED in. What stood out was the yellow socks that Clarence wore. Apparently, he wasn’t even aware that he wore the wrong one.
Pre-game talk was about keeping the ball on the floor and pass it around. We started with a 4-1-4-1 formation. We did try hard to string the ball around and one of these went to Harold on the right, who clipped it through the middle for Patrick, who was in another 1-1 situation again. This time round, he finished it into the top corner, surprising a few of us, given his past track record. His after-game comments on that goal was just one word. Composure. As the heat got to us, we struggled to keep up the tempo and lost the ball a few times. But from another sweeping passing move, saw Harold push it to Daryl on the left who delivered into the box. Colin went up for the header, closed his eyes and the ball somehow hit his shoulder and looped over the keeper into the net. We had a few more chances. Ron, with his trademark free-kick after Harold was chopped down, forced the keeper into a good save. Yew Boon, back from a hiatus, miscued after a great through pass from Henry on the left. 2-0 up and we were comfortably dealing with what the young boys were coming at us with. Not much of a threat so far, but they got a goal back close to half-time. Half-time 2-1.
Manager was pleased with what he saw in the first half. But what we needed to improve was our communication. Man-on, Time, turn, mark left, mark right, etc was what we needed each and everyone on the field to say when appropriate. We need this in order to perform when the season starts.
We started the 2nd half in the same mode but the heat was draining and while we tried to move the ball around at the ball, we made mistakes that Sherman comfortably dealt with. Then a long ball forward from Daryl on the left got to Colin who tapped it past the keeper and slammed it into the net to make it 3-1. We were pushing forward and Yiong got through after another good ball from Harold, but he decided to float it to Colin, who missed, instead of shooting. A corner from Jiunn was met very nicely by Patrick at the far post with a thumping header into the goal. Two good goals from someone who has been getting slack from our team mates. Tebing Tigers got a goal back when another mistake in our half, led to a cross from the right and their striker bundled in the ball in the box. Tebing Tigers had more chances to add to the score-line but their poor finishing plus some resolute defending from us (again) prevented that. Full time 4-2.
For the first time in many moons, the committee failed to single out a player for MOM this week. Daryl was praised for his assists and hard running. Jason was immense again, putting himself all over the place. Roger was calm and composed at CB and seems to becoming more natural in that position. Colin added to his goal tally with two goals as usual. Patrick 2 goals were certainly of a good quality and have seem to step up to become more penetrative for the team. 4 committee members, 4 different choices. In the end, Patrick got the nod. His hard running and 2 goals gave him his 2nd successive MOM. Well done Patrick, keep it up please.
Our last pre-season friendly on the 22nd Aug. Details will be out soon. We will also share more information on the Golden League when we get them later.
See you all next week.
