The Young Patriots Football Club faced Deportivo Lions in their 4th fixture for Season 27 of the Espzen League, on Sunday 26th November 2017. The match was played at Tampines Secondary School in an afternoon kick-off at 1 pm. Young Patriots goes in to the game with a 4-5-1 formation with Aliff Fadhilath Muhd in goal. Eustance Ong and Rabi Kumar will be the two center back while Faiq Mohd Saleh Muhammad and Nathaniel Sham will be taking the left and right back respectively. Fabian Chen takes the right midfield with Nicholas Teo on the left. Kumaresh Natarajan and Dinesh Natarajan are the two centre midfielders with Mohd Sharun Noor playing in front of them as a attacking midfielder while Eugene Ong played as the lone striker upfront. Taufiq, Aaron Shah Wan, Sulaiman Surani, Yeo Jun Hao and Wong Wei Jie were on the bench.
The match kicked off with the Patriots gaining more control of the game dominating the Lions in possession and 7 minutes into the game the Patriots took the lead when they counter attacked after taking over a loose ball after an intense pressing from the defence which ends with Kumaresh Natarajan along pass putting Nicholas Teo through on the left flank which Nicholas Teo outran Roushan Amir Hussain and hitting the ball into the bottom left putting the Patriots into the lead. With an early lead the Patriots tempo seems to break down and seems to lose focus and Wesley Ong scored an audacious long shot from the left after being left unmarked. The equaliser was a wakeup call. The Patriots get their head back into the game maintain possession building the attack from the back and send an immediate reply to the Lions when Mohd Sharun Noor was fouled outside the box after an intense attacking play. Eugene Ong then step up and send the ball curling into the top corner putting the Patriots back into the lead. Kumaresh Natarajan was then subbed for Yeo Jun Hao, Fabian Chen was subbed by Taufiq while Wong Wei Jie came in for Nicholas Teo. The pressing was more intense then the first 20 minutes and Yeo Jun Hao was given a yellow card on the 28th minute but the press was still on and soon enough Eugene Ong add another when Faiq and Rabi cut down the opponents attack and the resulting ball ended with Mohd Sharun Noor bursting pass the defence before squaring the ball to Eugene Ong whom blast it into the back of the net as the Patriots led the game 3-1 during halftime
The second half begins with the Patriots trying to extend the lead Kumaresh Natarajan and Aaron Shah Wan came in for Eustance and Nathaniel with Sulaiman Surani coming in for Dinesh Natarajan. all the players did their best to find another and finally in the 48th min Mohd Sharun Noor scored a controversy goal after getting onto a loose ball. The Lions got a consolation goal through a goal mouth scramble late in the game. The Patriots hold the Lions well with brilliant defensive effort and excellent shot stopping skill from Aliff as they end the game 4-2 winning their 4th consecutive game.
