Singapore: Champions taken to task before running goal riot 
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| Asia |
June 12, 2005
Singapore Hockey Federation
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By Eddie dos Passos/Singapore Hockey Federation
Defending Premier Men’s League champions Singapore Recreation Club were given a rude awakening before tearing apart Ceylon Sports Club 6-1 at Delta Sports Complex yesterday.
CSC drew first blood through an early Farhan Suhaili goal but that was as close as they came to closing the gap between the two sides and now CSC must rely on their last match next week, where they must beat Jansenites to advance to the play-off stage.
SRC’s win maintained their undefeated run this season and opened up a six point gap over second placed Chenab Hockey Club, whom they face next week.
CSC’s qualifying job was made all the harder as young Jansenites drew 2-2 with Police Sports Club in an earlier game, the one point enough to propel them ahead of fifth place CSC in the standings, with Jansenites on seven points compared to CSC’s six.
Playing one of their better games this season, especially in the first half, CSC should have come away with at least a point as they entered the break on a 1-1 stalemate but lacked the concentration to take any points from the defending champions upon resumption of play.
Singh said the difference between the two sides was mainly the experience factor, and the presence of Hong Kong international midfielder Arif Ali, who had just returned to Singapore a few days earlier and striker Sunil Prasad, whose hat-trick caused them the anguish against a side whose average age is around 17.
“I am proud of my boys today, they played really well and had it not been for Arif (Ali) and Sunil (Prasad) in the side, we might have come away with points,” said captain and coach, Manjit Singh.
“They (Ali and Prasad) made the difference. I don’t think SRC would have played that aggressively had they been without them. Arif was the linkman but I have to give our boys credit, at this age it is not easy for them to play two halves at this level consistently,” he said.
He felt they could only get better and that he had done his job as coach but he will miss next week’s game against Jansenites after collecting a green card yesterday guaranteeing him a suspension after receiving a yellow and green card from a previous match.
Edwin Tan, SRC captain also agreed with Singh’s assessment on the young CSC players and felt that given another two years together it would be enough time to mold them into one of the strongest sides in the league.
“The early goal gave their (CSC) young players the confidence they needed to fight for fourth place. We made a lot of mistakes and lost a lot of balls,” said Tan.
“But we knew if we played to our tactics, it was all down to scoring to win,” he said.
In an earlier game, Jansenites had themselves to blame by throwing away what should have been an easy win against a miserably defensive Police side.
Grabbing a comfortable 2-0 lead into the break, Jansenites then allowed Police to storm back with two soft goals.
Police coach Mohamad Noor was one happy man despite the draw which condemned them to the bottom of the standings and no chance of advancing to the play-offs.
“We lacked focus but after the break, we had more urgency and the players knew they had to win this game if they wanted to advance to the next stage,” said Noor. “But I am happy with the way we played even though we have been eliminated.”
In the final match of the day, officiated by invited Malaysian (international class) umpire, Shaji Balakrishnan, SCC nabbed all the points after beating eight-man Chenab Hockey Club, 4-1, with a half time score at 1-1.
Full results:
1. Police Sports Club 2 (Surendran Krshramurthy, 52nd, Abdul Ghafur Khan, 67th) Jansenites 2 (Gobirathan Krshramurthy, 23rd, Jeremy Loh, 46th) 2-0 h/t
2. Ceylon Sports Club 1 (Farhan Suhaili, 2nd) Singapore Recreation Club 6 (Sunil Prasad, 11th, 40th and 68th, Benjamin Ong, 47th, Arif Ali, 57th and 65th) 1-1 h/t.
3. Singapore Cricket Club 4 (San Thraicantham, 35th, Angus Lochead, 57th, Pravin Loganathan, 61st and Owen Griffiths Jones, 67th) Chenab Hockey Club 1 (Herwan Huhi, 33rd) 1-1 h/t.
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