No pain, no gain
by Cheryl Foxxy

X-S FC put up a brave showing today away from home against Si-Liaoning FC. The final result was 2-1 against their favour, but the match was anything but. X-S FC endured a full 90 mins with 10 men, the same few who actually started the match. The opposing team had 16 players who substituted freely like the rivers of babylon, but X-S was not to be deterred. The indomitable spirit of this team will long go into the memory of fans and players alike. The Tantalising Ten comprised of Derek as GK, Eng, Farrell, The Yong brothers, Ali, Nuri, Fabreyaz, Daniel and on-loan player Faeez. Even the referee was impressed with our showing but try as he may, he couldn't help us win.

The day started gloomily as managers Rafarell and Yarsene were desparately looking for players to go on immediate loan due to the shortage of players, many of whom were away on duty and plagued by injuries. It was eventually settled on the brave ten, who braved the rain on the journey to the west. The journey to the playing field itself wasn't smooth as Daniel led team captain Fabreyaz, Nuri and Faeez to a wrong location, due to some apparent miscommunication. It was settled quickly, at 130km/h to be exact, as they sped off to the right place. And the match could finally get underway.

X-S started fearlessly and brightly with YX playing as lone striker, Faeez and Ali down the flanks as Fabreyaz and Daniel anchored the middle. YX was a handful from the beginning to the end, as he won a corner early on. Nothing much came out of it, but Ali soon won a free-kick on the left wing. It initially seemed like Fabreyaz was going to leave it to YL to take, but he went back on his decision as he fancied his chances. And boy was he right as the X-S fans erupted as soon as the ball dropped into the back of the net, lobbing the goalkeeper who was caught by a deep dipping free-kick from the captain that took an eternity to land. Buoyed by the lead, X-S gave the Si-Liaoning players a hard time to equalise. Ali even took a hard low corner from the left into the middle of the box and Nuri only managed to shoot it back across goal. That was the next closest chance X-S had in the game. Oh well, at least it didn't fall at the feet of the Zoo keeper, Shahraul.

But 10 against 11 soon took its toll, as X-S crumbled in defence. Many clearances were fluffed and it took brave goalkeeping from Sissyneo (ironic as it sounds), includinga one-on-one from soon-to-be-sent off no. 10, to keep the score respectable. They managed to capitalise on one silly mistake and soon the scores were levelled.

After the break, X-S needed to warm up their engines as they sputtered to keep going. They were sorely missing players, without even mentioning the likes of Amin, Huda, Nizar and Boon Leng. Goalkeepers were also sorely lacking, with both Muhsin and Lee W. Liang unavailable. This became evident as gloveless Sissyneo let the ball slip from his grasp and turned to look at the ball bounce into goal, his mouth ajar, exposing BigTOOTH. 2-1 in favour of Si-Liaoning.

X-S kept going after that, with Ali, YX, Daniel and Fabreyaz all getting decent chances. Cramps were affecting the players one by one. At this point, hot heads appeared and tempers flared as the no. 10 from Si-Liao trampled on YL in the X-S penalty box. According to manager Derek O'Leary, YL was provoking that incident from the start and it was bound to happen. What soothing comments from the gaffer. Anyways, in defence of his "brother", vice-captain Farrell Terry pushed the big no. 10 away fearlessly. (It was needless shoving honestly.) The referee (cum coach) then proceeded to send both players off. With their best player off, Si-Liao just lost all momentum.

X-S took the initiative despite the niggling cramps and injuries with Daniel leading the charge. Attack after attack was repelled by resilient Si-Liao, and eventually, the score was final. It was an amazing match as the X-S players rued missed chances and realised how close they were to winning a match with 10 men only. All blame goes to Derek's blunder and Nuri's miss. HAHA.