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Central Park v Marina Country Club After a morale boosting victory against the Italians in their last match, the Sharks were poised to be physically tested against a robust outfit from Marina Country Club. The lost of Hidir, Azman, Zaidi and Din meant that the Sharks were missing a natural ball winner in the middle. Despite the setback, a tactical switch from left wing to the middle for Jeremy proved to be the key to the Sharks 3 - 1 victory against their opponents. With the return of Sarhan in defence, only the absence of Kelvin denied the team from fielding their best defence. The team welcomes new Sharks Brendan who started as a centre-forward and Chiu, as an attacking midfielder with the latter only managing to have a 25 minute appearance due to a niggling thigh strain. The surprise of the evening have to be when Suhaimi was left out of the starting eleven, probably due to his momentary lost of confidence in front of goal. The game started with MCC making their intentions known with some robust but fair play, trying to find the weakest link among Sharks back-four. However, an assured performance from the defensive quartet meant that chances were few and far between for MCC in the first half. The first chance of the match fell to Nawi who should have done better when he skived his shot, with only the keeper to beat. His pace proved to be too much for MCC left-back. Michael was then left with a one-on-one with the custodian only to be brought down unfairly just outside of the box. Surprisingly, the defender escaped without punishment. Adzmi opened the scoring for the Sharks from the resulting free-kick with a sweetly struck shot which totally left the keeper stranded. With Adzmi dictating play and ably partnered by Jeremy in the middle, MCC midfielders were left overran with the latter constantly winning those 50-50 balls from the opponents. Smelling blood, Sharks began to dictate the tempo of the game and put MCC in the back-foot for most of the match, throwing the formbook away. Under relentless pressure, MCC defence collapse when Nawi initial shot was blocked, only for Jeremy to slot home from the rebound to put the Sharks with a healthy two goal lead at half-time. Some chances were made to starting eleven with Daniel replacing Isa and Razali, coming on for Nawi who was suffering from a sprained ankle. Sharks began to take their foot off the gas. Passes when astray and were often left for the hardworking Sarhan and Jeremy to win the ball back. Michael and Brendan was substituted in the hour mark, with Walid and Zul replacing them. Zul almost scored with his first touch when he timed his run perfectly after a long punt was missed by MCC centre-back, lobbing the ball over the on-rushing custodian, only for the ball to be cleared off the line by the recovering centre-back. MCC then began to take control of the game and were duly rewarded when they capitalised a mistake by Daniel from a corner-kick to pull a goal back. They nearly leveled the game shortly afterwards, but only for Shawn to save a point blank save in his near post. Intent of proving the manager was wrong to drop him from the starting eleven, Suhaimi made sure of the win when he managed to score off a pass from Adzmi with a neatly placed shot. The Sharks could have scored another from Zul, only for his header to be saved full stretch from MCC custodian.
Sharks manager were full of praise for his players spirit against a robust MCC. He said 'Just look at the spirit of each and every players. They worked hard for this victory and certainly deserved the win. Adzmi's goal was certainly one of the highlight of the game and our rotation policy of having every player being being deployed in various position certainly paid off with Jeremy, totally enjoying his new position despite being preferred as a left-winger.' When queried if ultimately players like Azman, Hidir, Din and Zaidi will be dropped from to the bench, he shot back, 'There's no such thing as a first eleven, reserves, team A or team B in this Sharks setup. Everyone is treated equal and every match is different. Every player has a role to play.' Sharks next match will be a tough test for the team depth with almost 12 players missing for the match.
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