The Young Patriots Football Club faced Royal Phoenix in their 2nd fixture for Season 27 of the Espzen League, on Sunday 12th November 2017. The match was played at Bendemeer 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. Hilmi 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. Taufiq takes the right midfield with Nicholas Teo on the left. Kumaresh Natarajan and Sulaiman Surani are the two centre midfielders with Mohd Sharun Noor playing in front of them as a attacking midfielder while Wong Wei Jie played as the lone striker upfront. Fabian Chen, Jun Hao, Ganesh Natarajan, Wong Jun Ze, Kenny Lim, Eugene Ong and Eustance Ong were on the bench.
The match kicked off with neither side controlling much of the game as both teams were as much as the other but the first goal scoring opportunity came to Wong Wei Jie when Royal Phoenix Shanakian Rajkumaresan totally miss kick the ball from a pass to him and Wong Wei Jie took the opportunity latching on the ball getting himself between himself and the keeper but his shot narrowly miss of the far post. Royal Pheonix did not back down either and had their star player Redzwan posing threats on the left. Faiq Mohd Saleh Muhammad and Rabi Kumar partnership had stall them on numerous occasion and if Redzwan managed to send the ball into the danger zone Hilmi is there to clear the ball. Royal Phoenix managed to get themselves in the lead when they took their 3rd corner of the game when Vikram Shanmuganathan managed to score straight from the corner kick which caught himself and everyone off as the ball curled into the top right corner of the near post. The Patriots are not affected by the goal kept on with their game play Sulaiman Surani and Kumaresh Natarajan controlled well in the midfield Mohd Sharun Noor and Wong Weij Jie proofed a threat pressing the opponents but it was only in the 20th min when Nicholas Teo received a pass to the left of the field and with controlled the ball magically as he turned 180 left together with the ball and burst down the left with Royal Phoenix’s Justin Goh following tightly but his effort in vain as Nicholas Teo blast the ball to the top left corner of the near post equalizing for the Patriots. The game gets more difficult after the equalizer and Wong Jun Ze whom came in for Nathaniel Sham earlier whom was sub due to a knock was injured when the opponent come in with a hard tackle and was out for the game. Royal Phoenix tried hard to attack but Patriots defensive line did well holding them and they were forced to shoot only from outside the box which Aliff Fadhilath Muhd did exceptionally well holding on to the shots. Kumaresh had the best of chances to put the team into the lead near the end of the 1st half when his right footed shot from a cross from the left went whizzing past the far post as the supporters let our sounds of agony as the Patriots went 1-1 into halftime.
The second half begins with the Patriots yearning for a win Jun Hao was brought in for Kumaresh Natarajan and Fabian replaced Taufiq while Ganesh Natarajan came in for Faiq. The Patriots attack continuously once the second half starts looking for the winner. Royal Phoenix had problems holding off the attack and almost let in an early goal when Eugene Ong lobbed over the keeper was cleared of the line by Srinivasan Subramaniam. The attacked kept coming but the keeper was toughed to beat performing amazingly for Royal Phoenix but the deadlock was finally broken in the 60th minute when Fabian Chen long cross into the box from midfield found Eugene Ong whom headed the ball over the keeper and into the net a trademark partnership from the pair as the Patriots had turned the game in their favour. Eugene almost added another when Nicolas Teo amazing dribble past 4 players into the box was forcibly poked out landing towards Eugene Ong whom shot with his outer foot was kept out of the line by the keeper whith Eugene Ong in disbelief as everyone on the ground had already began to celebrate. The attack kept coming with Jun Hao in the middle controlling the game cutting out passes and making attacking play Taufiq and Nicholas Teo making crosses into the box but the Patriots was unable to find another. Mohd Sharun Noor had the best of his chances when he went 1 on 1 with the keeper after latching onto Eugene Ong flick but the keep full stretched safe kept the score line at 2-1. Royal Phoenix was anxious to get a goal back and many forced plays were played but the defensive line worked in unison and cut of most of their play while Rabi Kumar and Hilmi cut both of the strikers out, Ganesh Natarajan and Nathaniel Sham kept the wingers at bay. The fighting spirit of Royal Phoenix was finally broken when Kumaresh Natarajan was fouled in the box and Mohd Sharun Noor came up and sent the ball into the back of the net with only seven mintues to full time. The Patriots kept Royal Phoenix in check for the remainder of the game before the final whistle as they notched their 2nd consecutive win with a 3-1 win.
