Reds F.C enters this match with an unbeaten record of five
games.Except for Chester,they had a full squad with Jem just
recovering from a sprained ankle but still played
nevertheless.Their opponents for the day was Italia.
The pitch was as usual not in very good shape and the sun was
blazing mercilessly down on Spottiwood Park,the home of the
Reds.
The match started with Reds F.C taking a different approach this
time,keeping defending midfielder Robin and top scorer Russell on
the bench.Was this part of their strategy,well it certainly looked
so ,because the plan was them to come in after the opponents
exhausted themselves and run out of steam.
The first fifteen minutes of the match proved to be a challenge for
the Reds,as Italia gave everything they had to try take the
lead.They had a few long range shots at goal but were not on
target.Italia's playmaker Mr Botak was the centre of their
attack,although not the fastest but had good vision.Only problem
was that he was in the strikers position and had nobody to feed his
passes to.The best chance Reds F.C had was a shot from Alvin that
went wide.
The game was abrubtly turned around after Robin,Russ and
Lawrence
was introduced into the team.Reds F.C earned a free kick in
midfield after Lawrence got fouled.Robin took
the kick which found Russ who finished it easily to put the Reds
ahead.
The goal seemed to have boosted the morale of the team and it was
the Reds turn to pressure Italia with countless attacks down the
flanks.It wasn't long before Reds F.C were two up.It was Robin
again who assisted,passing the ball across the opponents goalmouth
and Alvin Ang,who had a great game,was at the end of it.
Things just didn't turn out well for Italia,who just somehow
couldn't find the net.Most of their through balls were cut out by
Ian and Charles on the left and Pat did well to shadow their
wingers on the right,giving them little chance to cross in,and when
they did manage to swing in a cross or two,it was cleared away by
JeM, with his spectacular flying headers :p
Just at the stroke of half-time,Reds F.C made it 3-0 when JeM
blasted a long range clearance and found Ah Boon who punished
Italia's defence for depending too much on the offside trap.
Although Reds F.C was leading quite comfortably,goalkeeper Colin
was furious at the break and pointed out that the midfielders were
not pushing up fast enough and were sticking too closly and not
opening up and finding spaces for themselves.
In the second half,Italia's nightmare continued when Reds F.C put
in another goal,Alvin made amends for his wasted effort earlier on
by placing his shot to the left hand corner,all thanks to a neat
pass from Russ.
For those who put their money on four goals at Singapore pools,they
can start tearing their tickets,because quite expectedly,the fifth
goal came when striker Robin who came into the game late,fired a
shot which stopped awkwardly in front of goal due to a horrid mud
patch,but Derrick was delighted to claim the
goal by ramming the ball pass the helpless keeper.
Reds made more changes by taking last man Charles out.JeM was
pushed to last man position and Pat came in
as stopper.
With all due respects to Italia,they still fought on bravely and
managed to pull one back.Gucci Tan swung a high cross to the far
post and Mr Botak got a head to it.The ball bounced pass the face
of goal,and Robert Toh finished it after Pat failed to clear.
The mighty Reds replied almost immediately through the left
flank,when Derrick freed Ah Boon who added a second goal to his
tally,making sure the ball ended at the back of the net.
After that sixth goal,Reds F.C started switching off,players
started getting slack and the team often lost possession of the
ball and let Italia run at the defence.
Italia earned a direct free kick just outside the box.The shot was
well taken,Colin got a hand to it but failed to tip it over the
bar,as the curling shot went to the top corner.
The last goal of the match came from a corner for Italia.Their
striker got a head to the cross which hit the post and went
in.There was some mix up of who should be taking which posts,which
resulted in an easy goal for Italia.
It was a little too late for Italia to catch up and the game
finished at 6-3.Although there were some lapse of concentration in
the final moments of the game,the Reds still came out tops once
again to stretch their unbeaten record to six games.A job well
done!!!!!!
