S.League Season 2009 – Match 17

	Opponent: DPMM FC Date: 6th Jul, 1945hrs Venue: Hougang Stadium Final Score: 2 – 1 (Mamadou Diallo 42′, Murphy Wiredu 63′ – Shahrazen Said 75′)
A team decimated by injury and suspensions under the tutelage of an unqualified coach went against all odds and defeated the League Cup champion. Clearly fairy tale stuff. An equally unfamiliar and shocking starting lineup Abdoulaye leads the inexperienced backline The team salutes Mamadou for his goal, stunning the DPMM defence Jerry, ever the diplomat Mamadou, the scourge of DPMM the whole night, almost nicks the second The only way to mark out Indra Murphy with the winner! Aide throws in another Calve, Raymond Kwa for Sazali The final moment is so intense the whistle dies The whole team celebrates Aide's first win in charge Bravo! Starting lineup vs DPMM GEGAR GEGAR GOO GOO GAA GAA!!!! Before the game we knew that Hiroyuki Yamamoto would be out with a hamstring injury while Zahid Ahmad had been out for weeks. Noh Rahman and Nur Azli Yusof both could be used to in defense but both were suspended. Little did we realized, Aide did not put himself in the starting line-up, neither did Jerry Bartholomeusz was included. Spreading across a 5 men defense we had an attacking midfielder Abdoulaye Diallo as the man marker in the middle. He was flanked with a Prime League defender Shane Neubronner who had started his second successive game and Lau Meng Meng who was more of a fullback. On the rightback we have Farizal Basri who was a cultured winger while on the opposite end was Darrel Tan, a former National Football Academy U18 trainee making his debut as a recent signing. Murphy Wiredu was left in the middle of the park on his own and boy did he enjoyed the role. Ok, DPMM FC was without suspended Hamdi Berguiga and Azwan Salleh and Croatian midfielder, Ivan Jerkovic was still recuperating after his surgery, the Bruneians would still expect to boss and game and maybe nick a slender win for their continual ascension to the top. Well Aide Iskandar and our valiant Dolphins surely did not read the script. Since the word go, we made use of our pace to totally smother the visiting team as our 5 men defense suffocate their makeshfit attack of Abu Bakar and Oh Doggy. Referee Leow Thiam Hoe and his assistant referees looked to form the 12th, 13th and 14th players in the yello strip by ignoring a few blatant fouls or awarding the visiting team decisions which should not be. The referee situation in Singapore football is chronic and tonight is the textbook example of one of the worst displays. With the defense in well assurance the engine room in the midfield was well oiled and raring to go with Sazali and Azhar running the flanks with their game of the season while Murphy Wiredu was winning all the aerial balls while curbing many half-hearted possession by DPMM. The Canadian nearly score with the goal glaring but missed the crossbar by a few inches. Just when we thought it was heading to goal less into the intermission, the ball bobbled free for Mamadou Diallo. The Guinean youngster toe-poked the ball over Rene Komar and then took in down dextrously and with Wardun to beat, he made no mistake. We at the stands were in wild jubilation as the home team truly deserved the goal. After the break, DPMM FC knew they had not kicking their game going and replace Abu Bakar with former Chonburi FC (yah right) midfielder Hardi Bujang. But we nearly scored minutes into the 2nd half when Wardun spilled a Darrel Tan’s probing pass and Mamadou should had hit the right side of the side netting. As the minutes went on, DPMM looked jittery and kept pulling the challenges like we all used to by now while our defenders made tackle with purpose and clean, just see how Farizal and Meng Meng had done so tonight. Then came the sucker punch when Murphy soared to meet a corner kick by Azhar and the ball bounced wickedly on the ground, hit the upright and squirmed into the empty net. It was a goal that shocked the bositerous DPMM supporters and even our own fans but it didn’t stop us from going into a pandemonium. It was 63rd minute and there was still alot of minutes to burn as the Wasps had to react if they needed to get something from the game. As a fellow Dolphins supporters were screaming we shouldn’t give the Bruneians too much respect yet we allowed them to come at us and Amos Boon was saving the shots left, right and center but he could do nothing when a Sairol Sahari’s freekick found Shahrazen Said unmarked in perhaps one of the rare cases when our defense was switched off, to pull one back I was fearing for the worst as we did concede late goals against Tampines and Super Reds which cost us dearly. But with Rene Komar pushed up, there was pores in their defense waiting for us to exploit. Substitute Raymond Kwa was running into spaces and made a good pass to Mamadou which looked to be another probable goal which would surely killed the game off. Komar’s blatant headbutt and Damit’s 2 feet tackle on Anthony Bahadur should had been a red each but yet they escaped with a yellow, once again highlighting the incompetency of referee Leow. Despite some moments of nerves especially with 4 minutes of injury time to endure, we held on to a shock win as our boys did our team proud and give it to the Brunei team who surely was brought to earth. Kudos to the 14 knights of chivalry which gave us so much joy which had been so long-awaited, I really could not pick one outstanding player as all 14 were impeccable. But the highest accolade have to be given to Aide to dare to experiment and put faith in his Prime League charges. It might be early to feel good times ahead but with games against Young Lions, Balestier and Woodlands to come, we really hope to ride on this result to inch closer to our pre-season aim of 8th placing which I feel this team could do it.