By Noor Farhan/Red Sports. Photos by Marvin Lowe/Red Sports
Venuraam of VS gets challenged for the ball by a Teck Whye defender. (Photo 1 © Marvin Lowe/Red Sports)
Sengkang Sports and Recreation Centre, Thursday, April 7, 2011 — Victoria School (VS) clinched the 2011 B Division Hockey Finals in style, scoring a golden goal through Hamizan to win 3-2 over Teck Whye Secondary School. The game had ended 2-2 after overtime.
The win represents Victoria School’s second B Division hockey title, their first title coming way back in 1981.
The Teck Whye players, the majority of whom play in the Hockey Premier League with the Indian Association (IA), matched the Victorians in terms of pace and skill, but were unable to find a breakthrough against Frederic Martens’ well-organised side.
It was Teck Whye who notched the first goal of the game early in the first half through Jia Le from open play, after good work by his midfielders seized an opening in the VS defence.
Victoria’s Mahes scored the equalizer and again found the net through an excellent drag-flick from a short corner in the second half to take a 2-1 lead. He was assisted by his brother, Venuraam, who set up both goals for him with excellent push outs.
With five minutes to the final whistle, up popped Teck Whye’s Guan Zhi who scored a magnificent top-corner goal through a short corner set piece.
Teck Whye, sporting black armbands in memory of former player Amirul who passed away after an illness two years ago, were unfortunate to see their good play unravel in extra-time.
A lapse in the rearguard enabled Victoria’s Hamizan to ghost into space and slot the winning goal 30 seconds into extra-time after an assist from teammate Yusuf.
“It was a very good game, both sides were open and you could see a lot of positive intent and I think we were a bit luckier than the other team,” noted Victoria coach Frederic Martens, who has been in the hockey scene for about 40 years.
“We never intended to play defensively from the start. We wanted to attack and score (throughout the game),” he added.
Noting the strong teams they had to come up against en route to the final, such as Jurong West and Sengkang Secondary, he was pleased overall with how his team performed in the tournament.
“(Teck Whye) were good, very good in fact, and they possessed very disciplined players who played well in the game.
“We missed a lot of chances, I would say, especially in the first five to ten minutes where we missed one or two chances but at the end of the day, the boys stuck through and won the game and that is all you can ask for,” he said.
Team captain Gerald Goh credited sticking to the game plan as the main reason for his team’s victory over Teck Whye.
“We prevented a few of their key players from doing what they do best. It helped us a lot and it was smooth going from then on,” he added.
Teck Whye coach Manjit Singh pointed towards the fixtures congestion, with his IA-based players having a Premier League match just four days ago, as a factor that could have caused the defeat.
“I’ve got a very small squad, and I do not have many players for me to rotate. Fatigue was a fact, as you can see in the later part of the game, the boys got very tired,” he said.
“All they had to do was to stay focused throughout and they could have prevented the goal. But it’s alright, they will grow up and learn from games like these.”
“For (Teck Whye), being in the final is already a fantastic achievement for them,” he concluded.
RedSportsXI: Who are your best 2011 B Division hockey players?
it’s mahes, not mahesh
Why was the 1st half goal by Victoria disallowed?
The Victoria players, apart from a defender, were also shorter and smaller in size.
Overall, Victoria was more organzied and better in dribbling. Teck Whye was strong in defence and midfield, able to match Victoria player to player.
actually , the umpire fault that cause vs to score the winning goal . VS fouled a teck whye player by a stick check but the umpire nvr blew the wistle . In the end he gave VS the ball as he saw it was the ball tht hits teck whye player legs , resulting the goal … It is really visible to see as the vs guy knock tw’s guy stick .
if u say that, then the second goal scored by teck whye was also the cause of the umpire. he blew for legs but the ball did not touch the legs. then they scored by that short corner.
Just to put a end to this, if not this arguement will go on forever.
Refs are ultimately human and they do mistakes. It’s an element of the game that we have to live with. At school level, we have no pro refs, no high tech replays to help us. We have to remember no referee is perfect. Even the BPL refs make costly mistakes at times and that’s part of the game.
In this case, i think both teams did benefit from both good and bad calls by the ref. Lucky for VS, they had one more crucial call that went their way. But that’s part of life and it ain’t always fair.
All in all, it was a well played game by both teams, very evenly matched. So please don’t give the refs too much credit when the boys from both teams played their hearts out and showed their desires to win. Once again, kudos to all the boys that played in the final, giving us such an exciting and entertaining game to watch!
The pictures were very well taken, Marvin.
Thanks! Glad you liked it.=)
It was a rematch. The same players were playing in the C Div Final 2 years ago.
http://redsports.sg/2009/08/18/victoria-school-teck-whye-hockey/
Thought the Victoria School coach is call Fred Martens? He had a big commotion with the New Paper reporter after the match. Think the reporter wanted to interview him but he scolded the reporter. When the reporter was persistent, the coach shouted: “Get out of my sight!” This was in front of all his players. And the coach just walked off.
The coach is quite a flamboyant guy. During half-time when Victoria was 0-1 down, he did not give much pep-talk to the boys. He also scolded the referee when he gave the penalty-corner for legs to Teck Whye. He kept shouting “Where got legs?!!, Where got legs?!!”…The penalty-corner resulted in Teck Whye equaliser when Victoria was cruising to victory with minutes remaining.
The coach is quite a character.
Yup, he’s called Fred as well. We just used his full name.
Well, we didn’t have any problems interviewing Mr Martens. He was very nice and friendly with us. Interviewed him more then once already, never had a problem. When you ask someone nicely, that person will respond in kind. I am not sure what the newpaper guy do to piss Mr Marten off.
You must have been pretty close to the players’ bench to have observed all these things?
He might be loud and quite the character, but at the end of the day, he delivered the results. Second title with this team already.
Yes. I saw everything. As I am a spectator, I managed to see a lot of things, including many cars kena saman…including mine..$30…sob…
hahaha…yeah, Farhan and I also kena fined too!!lol.
Yes, yes… I oso kena!
Any lineup?
line up for vs is… Goalkeeper: Elangesh
Defenders (right to left):
Samuel. Ray. Chee Yong. Dalson.
Midfielders (right to left):
Gerald. Mahesveran. Venuraam.
Forwards (right to left):
Muhd Hamizan. Muhd Yusuf. Amos.
I didnt receive any lineups from Teck Whye and Victoria, but I believe VS has provided the lineup for … well.. VS.
Do help me post the lineups for Teck Whye if you happen to have it as well. Thanks.
[…] Review of the final: http://redsports.sg/2011/04/09/victoria-teck-whye-b-division-hockey/ […]
For the record, Victoria National Schools hockey champions (excluding 6-a-side) are –
C Div – 1982, 1987, 1989, 1990, 2009
B Div – 1981, 2011
A Div – 1970, 1977, 1978
A Div (by VJC) – 1984, 1987
A Div Girls (by VJC) – 2003 to 2010
who is amirul? and why are teck whye players wearing the black armband?
Amirul was a Teck Whye hockey player who passed away due to an illness. They wear the black armband in memory of him.