Youngsters Get The Blues

It was a less than impressive performance. In fact, it was poor by our standards. But Ramblers did what they needed to do and came back with a hard-fought, slightly less than deserved 3-2 win over a Youngster United side that pushed us all the way to the very last minute. And that qualified us for a Quarter-final berth with a game to spare.

Management knew this was an important game and a win would send us through to the next round in 2 weeks time. And with a game barely 48-hours later against pre-tournament favorites, Bintang Baru, they couldn't afford to take any chances. So they decided to send out a team comprising of Chris in goal, Max at right-back, Chard and Alex as the centre-backs, Sin on the left, Benni and Keon on the wings, with Poay and Adrian anchoring the midfield. As usual, Heng and Brown started as the front two in a traditional 4-4-2 formation.

And within 5 minutes we were in front. It was a scrappy goal but with the ball bouncing frantically in the opposition penalty box, Brown was on hand to knock the ball home somewhat fortuitously. But the way were going to play, we'd take it anyway it comes. After that goal, the game somehow begun to swing in Youngsters' favor. Adrian and Poay were struggling to contain the midfield and retain any shape at all. Benni, on the other hand, looked lethargic... probably because of the long lay-off due to injury. And in a frustrated moment, Adrian seemed to have lost his head completely and lunged-in at an opposition from behind that warranted a yellow card at least, but escaped only with a stern warning. In the end, we huffed and puffed our way to half-time, holding on to the precious one goal lead.

After the break, management replaced Benni with Sin on the left flank hoping to put some pressure on the opposition's right-back with Adrian pulled back to support him, and Jason taking his rightful place in the centre of midfield alongside Poay. That proved decisive as the midfield began to look solid again. This sparked a 2 goal rush as Brown scored in quick succession. The first came when Keon was thought to have been fouled, but with the ref waving play on, Adrian hammered a sweet 30-yarder over the opposition defence for Brown to run in, deftly taking the ball past the keeper and slotting into an empty net. The second was also similar but this time, it was the opposing defender that gifted the ball to the dangerous Brown, allowing him to steal a rebound to score his hattrick! Then in a sense of deja-vu, we allowed Youngster to regain a grip on the game as they poured forward time and time again. Our defence suddenly looked fragile especially on the left with Adrian who seemed really lost. So it came as no surprise that he would inevitably be the culprit that contributed to the two leaked goals.

Their first materialized when Adrian failed to spot Chard pushing the defensive line up for an off-side trap and he played the opposing striker on-side. Although he tried to make a covering tackle, his lackadaisical attitude left much to be desired and the striker shot past an advancing Chris. 3-1 and Youngster sparked into life! Their next goal came late in the game when Adrian, who seemed like his mind was somewhere else, allowed the same striker to run past him to get on the end of a cross to volley home from just at the edge of the box. Luckily there wasn't any more time left for him to make more mistakes as the ref blew for full-time shortly after.

Final Score: Ramblers 3 - Youngster United 2