Central Park v FedEx

In truth, Sharks were never truly extended by a FedEx side whose front men were often denied services by a midfield lacking ideas and were made to fight for scraps against a resolute Sharks defence. Despite the Sharks superiority in the first half where almost 8 chances were created, the Sharks failed to capitalise. But once Suhaime struck in the 38th minute, Sharks squeezed the life out of the game to ensure that the Sharks were never in danger on being pegged back as per their last game. It was only the several interventions made by FedEx libero that saved his team from going more than a goal down in the game. The chances that fell to Sharks were almost sinful when the likes of almost all the Sharks midfielders and forwards had an opportunity on sight but they were often let down by mistimed shots or by shooting straight to the FedEx custodian. Even Sharks top goal poacher Azman had a day off in front of goal. As the Sharks players continued to pile on the pressure, a stroke of lady luck presented Suhaime when Hazli's shot was blocked by the ever impressive FedEx libero but only towards the the former who made no mistake this time from 10 yards to give the Sharks a well-deserved lead.

With only one change at half-time, it was clear that the Sharks were not going to sit back on their slim lead. The second-half started similar to how it ended in the first with the Sharks conjuring several attacks of their own to put the FedEx defence on the backfoot for long periods of the game. It was only in the 65th minute when Raymond latched on to some bad defending and his pin-point cross found Brendan who headed powerfully downwards to increase the Sharks lead. FedEx nevertheless regrouped and started exerting pressure of their own, but their final ball was still lacking. They then began to push forward in search on the elusive goal to pull their team back. However the decision was the start of their downfall. With their impressive libero pushed to midfield, the FedEx defence crumble without a calming figure. Their hesitancy in defence was exposed soon after when Sharks were presented with a couple of chances but were again denied by poor finishing. Nevertheless, it was a matter of time before Sharks netted their third and fourth through Suhaime and Azman respectively. With four goals in the bag, the Sharks were content to take the heat out of the game and playing some fluid passing to run off the time. Interestingly, the referee seemed to forget all about the final whistle before he finally blew it after adding almost 10mins to normal time.

After the game, the manager were clearly happy with his charges. He said, 'This has to be one of the best showing from the team for a long time. With all due respect to the opponent, they never had a sniff at goal for the duration of the game. The defence were in perfect sync for the whole match.' He added, 'The next game will be an interesting fixture. Having met BLAS before earlier this year with a defeat, the players are certainly looking forward to put one back against them.'