Central Park v FFF

Coming into the game after 2 consecutive wins, the Sharks knew that this week's fixture against Vietnamese outfit FFF FC will test their strength of depth after several players opted out of this game for obvious reason on Valentine's Day. Despite the setback, the morale on the Sharks camp were high off the pitch instead of on the field, when they fell 3-4 against a spirited and vibrant FFF FC team. The visitors were celebrating as early as the 5th minute when they capitalised on Irman's uncertainty and lack of communication with his makeshift defence comprising of trialist Weicong, Xavier and stopper convert Walid. Sharks immediately sprung into action with Jeremy and Brendan taking the initiative in the middle of the park. They could have leveled the score from Zul immediately after the restart, only for his scorcher outside the area missing inches wide. Sharks got a lucky break after 15 minutes when a free-kick by Jeremy were misjudged by the Vietnamese custodian, who were totally taken by surprise after it bounce just in front of him.

Instead of piling the pressure on the visitors, Sharks began to take their foot off the gas and were punished again when a seemingly harmless ball out of nowhere found an unmarked FFF forward which he duly slot home easily against Sharks custodian Isa. The home side makeshift defence were totally out of sync with each other. Undaunted, Sharks began their prowl again and a lovely pass by Brendan broke the visitors defence apart to find Zul who sprinted past FFF captain Phuc and coolly slot home his 2nd goal of the season to level the score yet again. While the Sharks were playing for half-time to  regroup with the score leveled, a mistake by Isa from his throw allows the visitor's forward to dully accept his lovely gift by lob the ball over Sharks keeper to take his team to lead against the Sharks at half-time. Weicong, Walid and Chiu were replaced by Kelvin, Suhaimi and Fadil at half-time to tighten up the defence and add more bite to the attack. However, chances were far and few for the Sharks as the visitors were intent to preserve their lead by playing with as much as 6 defenders on few occasions. Against a hard running Vietnamese outfit, the Sharks players fitness were taking their toll when Isa, Jeremy and Farhhad have to be replaced at the hour mark, after being bogged down by cramps.

With the substitutions, the Sharks were put on the back foot for the rest of the game and the visitors increased their lead shortly after when a poor goal-kick by Fadil found FFF FC forward who again duly accepted the gift by rounding him off and slotting past the empty net. However, the Sharks made sure that the visitors have a nervous final 10 minutes after Suhaimi decreased the deficit with an opportunistic goal, off a pass from Brendan. That was the only chance the home team could muster as the visitors tighten up the defence to finish the game victorious.