407 proved their strength in spirit and game by bouncing back from last week's defeat with a resolute 2-1 win over P**** united. Other than the umpire hiccup, the pitch was the major disappointment that day, freaking $%#%$@^ number of holes.
P-manager Alex was back at the helm and with jinyu at the center of the field in the starting line up, there was a greater stability in the game play. Missing another defensive mid, top scorer kheng wee had to be shuffled into the midfield for more aggressive bite.
The team started brightly as we tried to showed our worth in the passing game and the full backs doing well in covering the counter attacks. A few decent crosses by on form wilson and kheng wee jus eluded desmond tang who were close on several occasion. But tackles came in high and late on our players throwing the game into disarray on a few occasion. Kelvin was the first casualty and we shuffled new official signing zip, highly rated player. true enough, he showed his presence at the back with touches of flair.
the 1st break came at about the mid of the 1st half, after some good work down the left by daryl his cross in eluded the keeper and desmond showed vision by squaring it to onrushing zip for his debut goal!!! WOOT cool finishing by our full back
407 managed to grab a hold onto the game with more direct passes and fardil another exciting young prospect was on for veteran ivan providing more options for daryl on the left and more pace in our forward line. the team surged forward more dispite the occasion swearing and tackles and not forgetting the generous foul throws by our opposition. We got another notch when daryl whipped in another delicious cross with desmond tang sliding in for a sweet goal 2-0.
The half was about to end on a high note but success normally hurts the head a bit, as a incredibly huge lapse in concentrate allowed the opposition to surge pass the entire right side to pull a huge scare on us, eventually we gave away a silly set piece at the edge of the box, and our keeper untroubled till that point had to hit air after caught slow back peddling back the rocky ground. 2-1
half time prep tok was spent mainly on cooling hot heads and the manager had half to mind to send some for counselling. haha the team kept to the same formation with desmond tang dropping to the right side while ben and khengwee taking the center and kelvin re drafted to the center with shantan.
the opposition started the game with more spirit, probably wanting to get back on level terms but the game was still pretty even and kelvin and shantan not the most perfect pairup but was doing fine and gaining valuable exp. in the meanwhile, ivan showed his worth by toying with the offside trap and pulling off several deft touches which our players probably could lean from. after several good work from alvin and khengwee a perfect through pass almost let ivan through but the ref gave a stupid whistle.
Khengwee later also had a volley set up by a wilson cross saved at the near post and the game was pretty alive as robin had to be on the toes for long crosses and back passes. END TO END action, wilson and zip came in back to the game with jinyu gave us addition edge as later fardil received a good ball from wilson should have done really better infront of goal.
a rough up in the game ends up with kheng wee limping off and a messy reshuffle to 4-2-3-1 had to try to hold the game tight. desmond v was back in for kw and alex for alvin. a foul was conceeded at the edge of the box, and robin was at his best to keep the lead alive with a tipping save from the free kick.
our attack kept the other side on their toes and ben could have closed the game after fine work by desmond v but close was never enough. Shanthen was having a fine game at the back and a great header helped cleared a crucial ball but he eventually gave way to a knock and kudos to his bravery in the head knock too! we eventually held on for the win and a good dinner ends the day, thanks to the supporters, Alicia, Noble and Guoxiang for the support!!! woot
Team line up: Robin, Alex, Desmond V, Desmond T, Wilson, Shantan, Alvin, Scott, Kheng Wee, Jinyu, Ben, Ivan, Fardil, Daryl
Man of Match: Zip
