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Central Park are still looking for their first point of 2011 after they were humiliated 1-5 against a rejuvenated Greats at Temasek Secondary. Despite taking the lead courtesy of Brendan after just 8 minutes off a thumping header, Greats equalised shortly afterwards after an own goal by Charlson. It was downhill from then on as Greats scored another two in the first half and added another 2 in the second half to leapfrog Sharks into 4th place.
Sharks came into the game missing custodian Michael who have yet to recover from his injured finger in his last game against Gabrielite Remix two weeks ago and if that wasn't bad enough, the signs was there when team captain Vincent were not among the names in the lineup in the game. Charlson came to slot in that position while Yi Quan stood in for Michael in between the post. The game started brightly for Sharks with Greats having problem getting their foot in the game and it proved telling as shortly afterwards, a corner by Harold was met by Brendan to give Sharks an early lead. It was shortlived as at the other end, an innocuous cross was headed in by Charlson. That seemed to dent a couple of confidence among the team but on the other hand, the goal gave the opposition the much needed belief as they played confidently from thereafter. It wasn't a surprise when they added two goals to lead at halftime 3-1.
The second half saw Anuar taking on the mettle in between the post. A few changes saw Yus and Kelvin coming in but somehow, it proved futile as Greats showed Sharks the meaning of possession football as they stroked the ball across the field confidently, leaving Sharks for much period of the half starved of possession. With Sharks trying hard to push man forward, Greats scored a couple more though it could have been more had Anuar not made a notable one-on-one save from point blank range. The closest Sharks came to narrowing the deficit was Jason unable to finish from six yards after a low hard cross from Harold on the left. That summed up the collective poor game of the team as Greats finished the game strongly with a 5-1 victory.
The manager commented, 'The scoreline says it all and this wasn't what the Sharks were capable of. Today, the team played without any passion let alone skill. We were run ragged in every area of the field and were duly punished. The team need to look at themselves today and ask what went wrong. This wasn't the way the team plays all these years.
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