Montfort Alumni v Kolam Ayer Legends Match Report
Most of us met up at Hougang Interchange at 4pm and made our way to the pitch. We were given a last minute boast from Harish, who despite his heavy commitment travelled all the way there to play the first half for us. Beside Harish, Wee Siang's girlfriend was another surprise inclusion to our travelling contingent and we understood that she had to be around in order to bring the best out of him.
We decided to employ the formation we discussed over the last few days with minimal personnel changes. Harish took over Ho Teck at the heart of the defence and I stood in at the right wing for Shicai because he had no boots. Qinyao was kind enough to give up his starting place to the extremely motivated Wee Siang. Meanwhile our opponents only had 12 men in total and were missing several of their regular players. So basically we were playing their makeshift team and the match would be an indicator of our footballing abilities.
First Half
It was a rather even first half where both teams had their chances. The Montfort Alumni were finding their feet in the initial stages and we had a couple of decent half-chances. We had a ball cleared off the line by their defenders and their keeper made an incredible save after Wee Siang had the whole goal mouth to tap the ball in. On the other end, Jeremy produced the save of the match where he went down fast to palm away a hard and low shot which bounced awkwardly on the hard ground. Later on Wee Siang was put clean through by Ziyong but despite his brilliant first touch his nerves got over him and he wasn't able to fire us into the lead. Sufiyan had a long range effort saved by the goalie and it pretty much summed up our first half attacking efforts.
Half-Time
We were rather encouraged by the first-half scoreline and we highlighted some of our opponents' dangermen. No 13 was particularly impressive in his DM role and we had to keep an eye for him in the 2nd half. It was almost impossible to dispossess him and his distribution was excellent. Harish had to rush off for his appointment and the solid defensive pairing between him and Hanquan had to be broken up. Kok Wai was shifted back to the centre and Wai San would be the right back. Qinyao came off the bench for Wee Siang and Shicai was our right wing for the 2nd half.
2nd Half
Our defence seemed less assured without Harish and we had quite a number of nervy moments in the beginning of second half. Finally our resistance broke and we conceded the goal due to a lapse of concentration. Their right back no 6 intercepted one of our weak passes and came forward. We didn't close him down fast enough and he launched a hard shot into the far left corner of Jeremy's post. The team was stunned by it and our morale became really down. We tried to fight back but our attacks seemed to hit into a brick wall. Meanwhile Jeremy made an uncharacteristic mistake by allowing our opposition striker to get in between him and his defender. Luckily the ball bounced just wide of the post and we survived to lay siege on the opponents' goal in the last 10 minutes. All eleven men were in the opposition half during the last corner but somehow Jeremy miscued our last shot. So we lost 1-0, a markedly improved result compared to our last match.
Epilogue
I had to admit that both sides were guilty of unsavoury moments during the match. We didn't play particularly fair but they were no angels either. There were a few shouting matches around but luckily in the end clear heads prevailed. This is our 3rd consecutive defeats and Ziyong suggested that we can put stars on our jerseys for number of matches lost. No one loved the Montfort right back but we agreed that little got past him during the game. For me, No 13 was their Man-of-the-Match for his overall contribution throughout the game. While Jeremy was his usual dominant self apart from that lapse of concentration, my vote for our Player of the Day goes to Kendrick whose work rate and determination kept us in the game right till the end.
It wasn't a pretty match to watch but I felt that we had given our best today. While we had still quite a lot of areas to improve, our spirit can never be faulted. We just had to put the defeat behind us. We will win someday, hopefully in our next match.
Analysis of the match will be in the next entry.
We decided to employ the formation we discussed over the last few days with minimal personnel changes. Harish took over Ho Teck at the heart of the defence and I stood in at the right wing for Shicai because he had no boots. Qinyao was kind enough to give up his starting place to the extremely motivated Wee Siang. Meanwhile our opponents only had 12 men in total and were missing several of their regular players. So basically we were playing their makeshift team and the match would be an indicator of our footballing abilities.
First Half
It was a rather even first half where both teams had their chances. The Montfort Alumni were finding their feet in the initial stages and we had a couple of decent half-chances. We had a ball cleared off the line by their defenders and their keeper made an incredible save after Wee Siang had the whole goal mouth to tap the ball in. On the other end, Jeremy produced the save of the match where he went down fast to palm away a hard and low shot which bounced awkwardly on the hard ground. Later on Wee Siang was put clean through by Ziyong but despite his brilliant first touch his nerves got over him and he wasn't able to fire us into the lead. Sufiyan had a long range effort saved by the goalie and it pretty much summed up our first half attacking efforts.
Half-Time
We were rather encouraged by the first-half scoreline and we highlighted some of our opponents' dangermen. No 13 was particularly impressive in his DM role and we had to keep an eye for him in the 2nd half. It was almost impossible to dispossess him and his distribution was excellent. Harish had to rush off for his appointment and the solid defensive pairing between him and Hanquan had to be broken up. Kok Wai was shifted back to the centre and Wai San would be the right back. Qinyao came off the bench for Wee Siang and Shicai was our right wing for the 2nd half.
2nd Half
Our defence seemed less assured without Harish and we had quite a number of nervy moments in the beginning of second half. Finally our resistance broke and we conceded the goal due to a lapse of concentration. Their right back no 6 intercepted one of our weak passes and came forward. We didn't close him down fast enough and he launched a hard shot into the far left corner of Jeremy's post. The team was stunned by it and our morale became really down. We tried to fight back but our attacks seemed to hit into a brick wall. Meanwhile Jeremy made an uncharacteristic mistake by allowing our opposition striker to get in between him and his defender. Luckily the ball bounced just wide of the post and we survived to lay siege on the opponents' goal in the last 10 minutes. All eleven men were in the opposition half during the last corner but somehow Jeremy miscued our last shot. So we lost 1-0, a markedly improved result compared to our last match.
Epilogue
I had to admit that both sides were guilty of unsavoury moments during the match. We didn't play particularly fair but they were no angels either. There were a few shouting matches around but luckily in the end clear heads prevailed. This is our 3rd consecutive defeats and Ziyong suggested that we can put stars on our jerseys for number of matches lost. No one loved the Montfort right back but we agreed that little got past him during the game. For me, No 13 was their Man-of-the-Match for his overall contribution throughout the game. While Jeremy was his usual dominant self apart from that lapse of concentration, my vote for our Player of the Day goes to Kendrick whose work rate and determination kept us in the game right till the end.
It wasn't a pretty match to watch but I felt that we had given our best today. While we had still quite a lot of areas to improve, our spirit can never be faulted. We just had to put the defeat behind us. We will win someday, hopefully in our next match.
Analysis of the match will be in the next entry.
posted by shyh jie at 12:29 AM
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