By Kenneth Tan/Red Sports

Serangoon Junior College, Thursday, April 8, 2010 - Jurong Junior College (JJC) put themselves in the driving seat to qualify for the quarter-finals of the A Division Football Championship after a solid 3-1 victory over strugglers NUS High.

The victory helped them to climb three positions into the crucial second spot in Group C with seven points from three games played, just behind leaders Raffles Institution, who are on nine points.

The three points however did not come easy as they faced a resurgent NUS High. Being their last Group C game, they seemed to play to prove that they are no pushovers.

JJC created the first opportunity of the game on 4 minutes as midfielder Seow Yong Jie fired a shot outside the box wide of the left-hand post.

Two minutes later, they created another opening. Left winger Andrew Chang ran down the left flank and crossed into the box for forward Muhd Shaheer but the latter failed to get contact with his attempted header.

On 11 minutes, the deadlock was broken. Andrew Chang got down his flank well again and crossed into the box for Muhd Shaheer. The danger looked to be over when the latter missed his shot again, but right winger Ng Zhi Yi was the right place at the right time to slot the loose ball into the bottom left corner of the goal.

NUS High created their first opening four minutes later.

A long punt from the defence saw JJC captain Mohd Iylia mistimed his headed clearance which went backwards into his own box. NUS High forward Mitchell Keh chased down the loose ball and strode towards goal before JJC goalie Heng Beng Hao came rushing out of his own penalty area and ended up handling the ball outside. Beng Hao was duly booked for that infringement.

The resulting freekick however turned out to be an opportunity for JJC to score their second.

NUS High piled too much men forward and when the ball was cleared, JJC proceeded to launch a three-men counter attack that ended up with midfielder Goh Joon How repeating his heroics in their last game as he produced a rasping drive into the left corner of the goal just outside the box that gave NUS High stand-in goalie Kausik Venkat no chance at all.

NUS High could have pulled one back on 29 minutes. A good ball played into the box by winger Vijay Ramadoss was not cleared by the JJC defence. Mitchell Keh fought hard to win the ball before playing it back for midfielder Andre Tan to thump a first-time shot against the crossbar.

However they conceded their third goal three minutes later. A freekick whipped in from the right flank picked out an unmarked Goh Joon How who was given too much time and space by the NUS High defence. He proceeded to slot the ball easily into the bottom left corner of the goal.

Just after the restart, JJC had an opportunity to extend their lead to four goals but Seow Yong Jie shot straight at Kausik Venkat when presented with a one-on-one opportunity.

The second half however was a cagey one and did not open up until the 60th minute mark.

On 61 minutes, JJC full back Andrew Chang sent a teasing cross in from the left flank which picked out an unmarked Muhd Shaheer. However the forward somehow managed to fire over despite being just six yards out.

Ten minutes later, NUS High finally managed to pull a goal back. After a cross in from the right, forward Mitchell Keh managed to created some space for himself before firing an accurate shot into the bottom left corner of the goal.

The last ten minutes of the match proved to be the best spell for NUS High as they created another couple of opportunities which could have earned them an unlikely draw.

On 73 minutes, a long ball from substitute full back Roy Yeo Eng Shing (#5) was brought down well by Mitchell Keh. Mitchell got past his marker before firing his looping shot over from 30 yards out.

Five minutes later, centre back Ahmed Saddique fired a freekick at the edge of the JJC box low towards the bottom left corner before Heng Bang Bao pushed it wide of the post.

That sealed the result of 3-1 to JJC which meant NUS High finished their tournament bottom in Group C, suffering losses in all their five matches played.

However NUS High captain Lian Kay Wee remained proud of his team's showing this year.

"I am quite happy with my players throughout. Because of the busy school schedule, we can only train two times a week," he commented. "Although the scoreline does not always seem nice for us, I felt we tried our best in every game.

"I felt it was today," he said when quizzed about their best performance in the tournament. "We had a few injuries problem thus we had to play without our first choice centre backs and with a makeshift goalkeeper as well."

"Also we changed our tactics today," He added. "Previously we only cleared the ball and made our strikers run for it, but today we tried to play passing on the ground which worked quite well for us."

NUS High top scorer Mitchell Keh also shared his thoughts about his tournament so far.

"It was a tiring journey," he commented. "I sustained an injury in our first game and missed the second game as a result. After I came back, I decided to go all out for our final three games as it is possibly the last few times I will play for the school."

JJC will next face Raffles Institution in a crucial top-of-the-table clash on Monday, 12th April, 3pm in a rescheduled game at Serangoon Junior College.

Scorers
JJC
Ng Zhi Yi 11′, Goh Joon How 16′,32′
NUS High
Mitchell Keh 71′

JJC lineup
Heng Beng Hao (#1, GK), Huang Ziting (#5), Ng Zhi Yi (#6), Seow Yong Jie (#8), Muhd Shaheer B Abdul Rahma (#9), Goh Joon How (#10), Mohd Iylia Haziq B Othman (#11, captain), Andrew Chang Zhi' An (#12), Ong Yu Zheng (#13), Teo Woon Min (#16), Sifat Ullah Khan (#17)

NUS High lineup
Kausik Venkat (#20, GK), Paul Yuen Wen Loong (#3), Lian Kay Wee (#7, captain), Mitchell Keh Ming Ze (#9), Jeremiah Ho Jun Wen (#10), Ahmed Saddique Bin Abdul Jabbar (#12), Vijay Ramadoss (#14), Sundeep Subramani (#16), Pan Chuen (#18), Andre Tan (#19), Shen Qianyu (#23)

Go to the SCHOOLS FIXTURES & RESULTS page for more information.