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Central Park faced YDM at First Toa Payoh Secondary school, eager to avenge their injury time loss to The Usual Suspects last week. However it wasn’t to be despite a battling team performance.
The Sharks were lacking the services of veteran strike duo Heng Li and Isaac, allowing Jason to spearhead the attack. With Mizan returning to the side, Christopher Lam completed the front two pairing. Alfred stepped in to join Ryan in the centre of midfield.
YDM got the better of the opening exchanges, displaying some fluent passing and movement that’s been a hallmark of their side. Central Park was left chasing shadows in midfield and couldn’t retain enough possession to mount a serious goal threat. Charlson faced the brunt of the YDM attacks, with much of the play coming down his flank. But the diminutive fullback contained the threat well.
Tempered flared when a YDM striker caught Vince with his studs, leaving the Central Players incensed. The same forward however let his football do the talking minutes later. An innocuous long ball led Sharil to head the ball back to the onrushing Mizan. But the pass was too short, allowing the YDM attacker to reach the ball first and poke it into an empty net.
The Sharks kept their heads up and managed to get back into the game. Their best opportunity of the game then fell to Christopher. Jason intercepted a careless pass by YDM, skipped past a challenge and bore down on goal. With only one defender to beat, he squared the ball to Christopher. Despite having acres of space, the burly Aussie couldn’t beat the YDM goalkeeper who got down well to save.
Harold then had a couple of free kicks on the edge of the area, but both sailed wide. The next best chance fell to Brendan, when he found the ball at his feet during a goalmouth scramble. His shot however was deflected into touch. Central Park then lost key defender Vince. He bravely blocked a cross but rolled his ankle in the process, an injury bound to keep him out for a few weeks.
The second half saw the Sharks gain confidence and press forward more often. YDM on the other hand seemed content to absorb the pressure and counterattack. Central Park’s pressure finally paid dividends when Harold burst down the left flank in typical fashion to fire in a low cross. This put the defence at sixes and sevens, and the ball fell to new boy Khairul who made no mistake from two yards. With things all square, the boys in yellow seemed intent to go for the win. Central Park prodigal son Chris, who returns for 3 weeks, was next to let a chance go begging.
After being put through on goal, the winger blasted the ball past the hapless YDM keeper… only to see it rebound off the post. Harold reacted quickest to the loose ball and unleashed a full-blooded volley destined for the back of the net. But as luck, or bad luck rather, would have it, Khairul stood in the way of the shot and saved YDM from a certain goal. As the Sharks pressed forward, they inevitable left gaps at the back, which the pacy YDM forwards, were quick to exploit. One breakthrough found the winger one on one with Charlson.
The fullback was unable to stop the speedster though and he raced through on goal. Without breaking a step, the striker let fly a near-post shot which beat Mizan and bulged the back of the net against the run of play. It went down hill from there for Central Park. The striker was put through once again, and Mizan had little choice but to bring him down. Luckily it was at the edge of the penalty area, and the big man was only given a yellow.
But this was soon a moot point, when a desperate back-pass from Harold was chased down by the same YDM forward. Not able to handle the ball, Mizan challenged for the header, only for the referee to blow for a contentious penalty. YDM then converted to complete a miserable afternoon for the Sharks.
The manager commented, 'We blew our chances in front of goal today. We had at least 3 chances that could have found the back on the net but we were wasteful. The opponents on the other hand had 3 and they took all of it.'
He added, 'We are just not taking our chances in front of goal and this was a problem about 2-3 seasons ago when we just seem to have a quality forward that can bang in the goals at will. Hopefully we can sort this out.'
The comments by the manager coincides with the club's top scorer Heng Li who have been a pale shadow of himself in front of goal. The club's all-time top-scorer have only found the net a miserable 3 occasions in 27 games this year. |
