Scorers (assists)
Rashid (Imran)
Man Of The Match
Rashid (3) - a superb second half showing. We can only wonder about the final outcome of the match had he started the game.
Akim (2)
Huang (2) - here, there, everywhere
Muhammad (2)
Syafiq (2) - held the attack well on his own
Firul (1)
Imran (1)
Yellow card:
-
Akim (GK)
Mubarak - Amin (d) - Firul - Fazli
Kelvin - Shiva - Muhammad - Karim
Huang - Farid
Subs:
Firdaus
Imran
Rashid
Syafiq
A host of match-day problems wrecked KFC's match yet again where the battle seems to be off the pitch rather than on it. We started with eleven men on the pitch. If it were not for Farid, Karim's younger brother, we would have started with ten. It was still a weakened starting line-up but we coped with what we have.
We coped admirably indeed, in the first half of the first half of the match, keeping our opponents at bay and we rode our luck too. Macheda eventually broke us down. A corner was floated into the penalty box. I, standing in as GK, thought I had the ball in the air but I misjudged the height of the ball which fell to the opponent in front of me. As I flailed to get the ball away, he managed to send a header which looped in underneath our crossbar. Firul, defending on the goal-line, did not have the height to deal with it, but there was nothing he could have done.
A moment of defensive lapse deep in our half led to the opponents' second goal. A counter-attack broke quickly as play shifted from our right side of defence to the left. The opponent's right winger managed to get the better of Firdaus, surged into our penalty box and his powerful drilled shot beat me at my top corner post. It was a goal which a GK would be ashamed to concede. As much as my mentality tried to be a GK, I know that I am only standing in as one. Yet, I was still nevertheless disappointed at how I conceded that goal.
Truth be told, Macheda would probably have scored from a fluke of a goal as much as from a brilliant set-up play. They were creating chances at will, including two shots that struck the crossbar and while we manfully hung on, the 0-2 scoreline was not as flattering as it should be.
Fazli, injured in the first half, was already ruling himself out for the second half to add to the injury woes he has suffered all season and extended the team's injury list too. However, we had Imran, Rashid and Syafiq, who was astonishingly playing in his 1st league or cup game this season, all starting the second half and we made major improvements all-around, not surprising considering that they were the key players who would have started the match anyway.
The three players boosted our display and though it is useless to ponder what could have been, the story is that we did not concede a goal in the second half. We even managed to score a goal. More telling was the fact that although Macheda were still winning the individual battles in key positions, we were pushing them much harder in the second half and were creating chances too.
Imran's free-kick just inside the opponents' half-way line was floated in towards the near post. Rashid anticipated the cross to tuck in the goal that gave us brief hopes of stealing a result but the damage had been done in the first half.
Macheda were still spraying shots in the second half, but they were not from close-range. I still had to make routine saves and catches but I had a nervous second half instead including a fumble that was comical beyond belief, which saw the ball trickled free of my hands towards the goal only to be slowed down by the upright. I was still relieved anyway to have kept a clean sheet in that half.
With 6 games remaining, 5 of those games feature teams that are above us in the ten-man league. These 5 teams and Macheda are still in with a title shout with 5 points separating the top 6 teams. Behind us by one point, Sarcofargo is the only team below us. However, they have three games in hand. Relegation to Division 4 is certainly looming but I prefer to focus on dealing with our team internal issues rather the upcoming remaining matches.
Our team in D2D league
Rest of results
Akim
We coped admirably indeed, in the first half of the first half of the match, keeping our opponents at bay and we rode our luck too. Macheda eventually broke us down. A corner was floated into the penalty box. I, standing in as GK, thought I had the ball in the air but I misjudged the height of the ball which fell to the opponent in front of me. As I flailed to get the ball away, he managed to send a header which looped in underneath our crossbar. Firul, defending on the goal-line, did not have the height to deal with it, but there was nothing he could have done.
A moment of defensive lapse deep in our half led to the opponents' second goal. A counter-attack broke quickly as play shifted from our right side of defence to the left. The opponent's right winger managed to get the better of Firdaus, surged into our penalty box and his powerful drilled shot beat me at my top corner post. It was a goal which a GK would be ashamed to concede. As much as my mentality tried to be a GK, I know that I am only standing in as one. Yet, I was still nevertheless disappointed at how I conceded that goal.
Truth be told, Macheda would probably have scored from a fluke of a goal as much as from a brilliant set-up play. They were creating chances at will, including two shots that struck the crossbar and while we manfully hung on, the 0-2 scoreline was not as flattering as it should be.
Fazli, injured in the first half, was already ruling himself out for the second half to add to the injury woes he has suffered all season and extended the team's injury list too. However, we had Imran, Rashid and Syafiq, who was astonishingly playing in his 1st league or cup game this season, all starting the second half and we made major improvements all-around, not surprising considering that they were the key players who would have started the match anyway.
The three players boosted our display and though it is useless to ponder what could have been, the story is that we did not concede a goal in the second half. We even managed to score a goal. More telling was the fact that although Macheda were still winning the individual battles in key positions, we were pushing them much harder in the second half and were creating chances too.
Imran's free-kick just inside the opponents' half-way line was floated in towards the near post. Rashid anticipated the cross to tuck in the goal that gave us brief hopes of stealing a result but the damage had been done in the first half.
Macheda were still spraying shots in the second half, but they were not from close-range. I still had to make routine saves and catches but I had a nervous second half instead including a fumble that was comical beyond belief, which saw the ball trickled free of my hands towards the goal only to be slowed down by the upright. I was still relieved anyway to have kept a clean sheet in that half.
With 6 games remaining, 5 of those games feature teams that are above us in the ten-man league. These 5 teams and Macheda are still in with a title shout with 5 points separating the top 6 teams. Behind us by one point, Sarcofargo is the only team below us. However, they have three games in hand. Relegation to Division 4 is certainly looming but I prefer to focus on dealing with our team internal issues rather the upcoming remaining matches.
Our team in D2D league
Rest of results
Akim