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!!!!!!
