Raffles Institution and St Andrew’s JC achieve opening victories in 2nd rd of A Div football

By Kenneth Tan/Red Sports

St Andrew's Junior College, Tuesday, April 27, 2010 - Raffles Institution (RI) and St Andrew's Junior College (SAJC) scored identical 3-0 victories over Yishun Junior College and Catholic Junior College respectively in their opening second round Group X matches of the A Division Football Championship.

RI faced off against Yishun Junior College (YJC) in the first game and got off to a very good start with two goals in the first 20 minutes.

On 17 minutes, a through ball down the right superbly picked out forward Muhammad Nuri right outside the box. Nuri took advantage of the uncertain YJC defence to slalom through and slot accurately into the right corner of the goal.

Three minutes later, full back Hoang The Huan's corner from the right saw the YJC defence fail to pick up the run of midfielder Ong Zhi Hao at the far post who easily headed into the bottom left corner of the goal.

YJC slowly settled into the game midway through the first half and created a couple of goalscoring opportunities.

On 22 minutes, RI centre back Yi Hao made a hash of his clearance from a YJC free kick, and the ball fell to a lurking Mohamed Shahmeer who volleyed just wide of the left-hand post.

Shahmeer had another opportunity five minutes later when he expertly flicked on a header from a long free kick. However his effort went wide of the right-hand post this time round.

RI capitalised on those missed opportunities as they went 3-nil up within 11 minutes of the second half.

Full back Nguyen Duy Anh's cross from the left saw YJC failing to make their offside trap work as it eluded every defender to put Muhammad Nuri onside and one-on-one with YJC goalkeeper Mitchell Tan. Nuri remained composed to flick a volley past Mitchell into the right hand corner of the goal.

YJC struggled to create opportunities in the second half and only had a solitary goalscoring chance on 62 minutes. Winger Muhammad Haiqal broke free in the box and was prepared to shoot before RI goalkeeper Andrew Chua came out well to intercept the ball.

RI continued to attack towards the end in the search of more goals to boost their goal difference.

On 65 minutes, Nuri's header from a Hoang The Huan corner looked to be headed towards the top right corner of the goal before it was hacked off the line by a YJC defender.

Six minutes later, a long ball out of defence picked out Ong Zhi Hao on the right flank. Zhi Hao proceeded to cut inside and released a left-footed shot from inside the box that came off the left-hand post.

Substitute Alvan Tay had the last opportunity of the match on 80 minutes as his shot from inside the box was well saved by Mitchell Tan, after he was set through by Varun Vijayraghavan.

Hosts SAJC then took on surprise package Catholic Junior College (CJC) in the second game.

CJC started well as midfielder Aaron Lim fired a 30-yard free kick wide of the right-hand post within a minute of the start.

However SAJC took over thereafter as they dominated the first half with their good flowing passing movement which made it hard for the CJC players to intercept the ball.

They created their first opportunity on 14 minutes when Gregory Noah’s corner from the right picked out the head of centre back Darren Hedger, but the latter’s effort was cleared off the line by a CJC defender.

They took the lead nine minutes later through a superb interchange of play between playmaker Gregory Noah and forward Pradeep. After getting past his man in midfield, Gregory played a superb one-two with Pradeep that cut through the whole CJC defence. Pradeep strode into the box before slotting coolly into the bottom left corner of the goal.

The goal brought much applause from the SAJC supporters in the stands.

SAJC winger Foo Ming Yi then had two efforts on goal thereafter which sailed wide of the right-hand corner of the goal after he cut in from the left flank.

SAJC’s continued attacking approach paid off as they scored their second on 32 minutes.

Centre back Darren Hedger played a superb one-two before making a surging run down the left flank and crossing early into the box. The cross picked out an unmarked Tan Wei Zhen who clinically dispatched a volley into the bottom left corner of the goal.

They put the icing on the cake nine minutes later with their third goal.

A through ball down the left picked out Pradeep who swivelled past his marker superbly before firing a powerful shot that beat CJC goalie Aaron Teoh at his near post.

The second half saw CJC trying their best to launch a comeback as they created a couple of opportunities within four minutes of the restart.

On 42 minutes, forward Caleb Lim’s shot from outside the box was only palmed away by SAJC goalie Lee Shi Tong into the path of Reko Aw. However Reko somehow fired onto the bar from two yards out.

Two minutes later, CJC were awarded a free kick just outside the box, but midfielder Chua Ming Shiun’s resulting effort went over the bar.

They came close again on 62 minutes when Aaron Lim launched a counter-attack with an early cross from the right, however Caleb Lim’s volley went just wide of the right-hand post.

SAJC finished the stronger side towards the end and created another opportunity to score deep into injury time. Midfielder Muhammad Asyraf slalomed through the middle before firing a low shot towards the bottom left corner which CJC goalie Aaron Teoh had to tip wide.

However the joy of victory was tempered for SAJC after captain Neville Chia had to be helped off the pitch by his teammates after suffering a shin injury and was seen using ice packs to dampen the swelling.

"It was just a challenge on my shin," Neville said after being quizzed about his injury. "That's football. Fortunately it is not that serious, and I should be able to recover for the next game."

RI and SAJC now go joint-top of Group X with both teams on three points while YJC and CJC share the third and fourth spot with no points yet.

Meanwhile over in Group Y, last year's finalists Victoria Junior College (VJC) and Meridian Junior College (MJC) achieved resounding 5-0 and 4-0 victories over Serangoon Junior College (SRJC) and Hwa Chong Institution (HCI) respectively.

The next Group X fixtures, scheduled on Friday, April 30th, see RI take on CJC at 3pm while SAJC take on YJC at 4.45pm.

Both matches will be played at SAJC.

(RI vs YJC)
Scorers
Muhammad Nuri Bin Mohamed Shafei 17', 51'
Ong Zhi Hao 20'

RI lineup
Andrew Chua Ruiming (#1, GK), Li Jinghui (#2), Muhammad Nuri Bin Mohamed Shafei (#5, captain), Varun Vijayraghavan (#11), Nguyen Duy Anh (#12), Pranav Malhotra (#13), Hoang The Huan (#14), James Kwong Kam Yin (#16), Yi Hao (#17), Ong Zhi Hao (#18), Vuong Gia Hieu (#19)

YJC lineup
Mitchell Tan Hwee Wang (#1, GK), Varghees George Praveen (#2), Ferry Maulana B Achmad Cheah (#3), Muhd Nur B Mohamed Nazeer (#4, captain), Muhammad Haiqal B M Harris (#7), Abdul Hadi B Ali Akbar (#8), Mohamed Shahmeer (#9), Cyril Matthew Philix (#10), Ernest Kok Zi Yuan (#11), Muhd Izzat B Sulaimi (#13), Brandon Tan Jin Quan (#18)

(SAJC vs CJC)
Scorers
Pradeep 23', 39'
Tan Wei Zhen 32'

SAJC lineup
Lee Shi Tong (#19, GK), Tan Wei Zhen (#2), Kang Yun Yi (#3), Cheng Guang Fu (#6), Chow Jiachuan (#7), Muhammad Asyraf (#8), Pradeep (#11), Darren Hedger (#13), Gregory Noah (#14), Neville Chia (#21, captain), Foo Ming Yi (#22)
CJC lineup
Aaron Teoh Jia Kai (#20, GK), Joseph Koh Yuan Shan (#2), Gerald Yeo Zhang J (#4), Quinten Jad Roslen Wei Rong (#5), Bryan Cheang Hui Ren (#8), Reko Aw Jun Ray (#10), Aaron Lim An Rong (#11), Chua Ming Shiun (#13), Alastair Leong Zhi-Rong (#14), Caleb Lim (#16), Muhd Prem Nazir s/o MK (#19, captain)

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