1ST WIN - AFC 4-3 BDS

Ashburton Futebol Club recorded their first win of the season by beating Bedok South Secondary FC 4-3, in a game where " spectacular goals " can be labelled as the theme of the game.

The build up to the game was tension-filled. A few of the lads were caught on camera laughing their asses off, and it could be seen from their facial expressions that they didn't seem to be bothered with the possibility that losing was still an option. Their demeanour suggested that they were confident of getting 3 points in the bag, but what they didnt know was that the lads of Ashburton Futebol Club would have the last laugh instead.

Ashburton Futebol Club were without Lutfillah, Khabir ( National Service ), Hafiz ( AWOL ) and Taufiq. The return of Ahmad Zahiri was a boost for the club, who were missing out on creativity both from the flanks and the centre of midfield. The hype to the pre-match was as expected, as Kori Kong, manager of Ashburton Futebol Club, delivered his team talk and drilled the winning mentality into the heads of the players. Kori, who was in his first game in charge at the helm, wanted the team to start off with a 4-4-2 formation. A reshuffle was needed at the back, as Shakur was deemed late for the match.
We started off quite well and maintained the goalless scoreline.
They were nothing much during the first half although Shakur came only after 30 mins of play and Ameer Syariff, Ahmed Syariff younger brother, took his place for a moment.
He could be our future signing, maybe 5 years down the road?.
Then, we were leading 1-0 just before half-time.
All thanks to Izhaq who had score from his own penalty area, through a goal punt with a brilliant long lob which defeated the other side's keeper.
However during the second half, both teams put on a fierce encounter with 6 goals coming from both sides.
It was a thrilling end-to-end stuff.
Just after the 2nd half whistle, our opponent snatched an equalizer.
Not long after, we conceded another goal with our weakened defence due to Hanafi's lost.
And it was 3-1 to the visitors when Izhaq let in another goal.

Although we were losing then, we did not gave up and showed some good fighting spirit to bounce back to 3-2.
Even though Haikal pushed the ball over the line when he was challenged by the opposition, it was Ahmed Syariff who scored that goal from his long shot.
We moved on and it was a late comeback.
There was good teamwork on the last quarter of the game.
Ahmad Zahiri's powerful shot from mid snatched an equalizer later on to draw the scores level.

3-3, and there was a 5-min stoppage time added on.
Both teams now were desperately looking for the winning goal.
ASHFC was lucky enough not to have conceded late goals.
And luck was on our side again when we made our last attack - The opponents conceded a corner.
Sabri passed on to charles who was unmark. He then lofted the ball into their area and the ball missed everyone including their goalkeeper.
So Shafie, who was at the far post, took advantage of it and tapped in using his sole.
It was amazing as we were not expecting to win after going down to them.
They also did not expect themselves to lose.
Only Amirul from the other team as well as Ariff was good.
The others were just like us.

However in a game of soccer, the beautiful game, anything can happen.
And it happened on this unscheduled match.
Now we march on to keep improving and maybe one day, winning is not a problem for us if we believe in ousrselves and the ability to succeed.
And we must also train hard for that to come true.
So nothing is impossible

HERE'S THE LINEUP OF TODAY'S MATCH
1ST-HALF(4-4-2):
Izhaq;
Syariff, Hanafi, Eugene, Ameer(Shakur);
Ammar, Shafie, Zahiri, Sabri;
Charles, Haikal.
2ND-HALF(4-5-1/4-1-3-1-1):
Izhaq;
Syariff, Kori(Ameer), Eugene, Ameer(Shakur);
Ammar;
Charles, Zahiri, Sabri;
Shafie;
Haikal.

Training Update.

Training sessions for Ashburton Futebol Club will resume this Friday, 25 May 2007.
Everyone from this club will be expected to attend this rigorous training session.
Coming from back-to-back defeats, the management has decided that everyone will have to work ten-fold now, now that these results have emasculated the team by snatching away our confidence and team spirit.