Catch of the Season – Noh Rahman

So there you have it, our inaugural Player of the Season: Noh Rahman.

Leading the poll for much of the voting period, it was hardly a surprise that he would finish in style. The 31% approval ratings pretty much sums up the value the fans placed in his playing ability and importance to the team.

It was a coup for Sengkang Punggol when his long service was unexpectedly deemed surplus to requirement at Geylang United though at the back of our heads we knew that this was too good to be true and that his move over would be a temporary one till greener pasture comes acalling. Nevertheless landing a national player of his stature and experience would no doubt stable the rocky defence and more importantly help lay the foundation for future development. Unfortunately management infighting and inept coaching meant that the club’s dream for grandeur never materialised and turned into nothing more than a false hope for the fans.

In spite of all the gloom surrounding the club, he remained a consummate professional and continued to protect the porous backline in his new role as midfield anchor. True to Sengkang Punggol’s form, the team continued to struggle but on several occasions he was still singled out for praise for his individual performance and calming displays. His off the field professionalism has also been spoken well of by ex-chairman Mr. Ben Lim, for his focus and positive attitude.

However his falling out of favour with the new regime reduced his playing time considerably in the later part of the season and a move out of the club is a dead certainty now.

Regardless where your next football assignment may be, at least for this one season you have proven yourself and won the hearts of many fans of Sengkang Punggol. So pat yourself on the back for a job well done, Noh Rahman. You deserve it.

Player of the Season (2009)

In spite of Sengkang Punggol’s unsavory reputation as a football wasteland where waning careers come to wither and then die, time and again there are still that few who were able to flourish under the challenge and in the process, earned a place in the hearts of the Hougang faithfuls.

In our inaugural Player of the Season award, we managed to shortlist (seriously, it ain’t hard) five candidates worthy of being mentioned in the same breathe as legendary goalpoacher Steven Tan, flamboyant midfield enforcer Douglas Ithier, insanely skilful cult hero Bernard Aryee. Hyperbole really doesn’t work so well with the club’s minuscule stature.

AANyway now’s the time for you fans, cynics, poll crashers or the simply bored to make your vote count and nominate Sengkang Punggol Football Club’s Catch of the Season.

 

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Poll has closed. Thank you for casting your vote.

Results to come.

S.League 2009 Match 32 (30 if you are anal retentive)

	Opponent: Woodlands Wellington Date: 6th Nov, 1930hrs Venue: Jalan Besar Stadium Final Score: 2 – 1 (Farizal Basri 57′ (p), Murphy Wiredu 90‘ – Precious Emuejeraye 68’ (p))
Another escape from the depths of hell known as the bottom league position.   Starting Lineup Amos Boon (C) Zul Nor Farahin Nurhidayat Kamarudin Lau Meng Meng Nor Azli Yusoff (Sazali Salleh 63′) Ashley Ow (Azhar Baksin 50′) Farizal Basri Sobrie Mazelan (Isarel Tan 68′) Murphy Wiredu Abdoulaye Diallo Mamadou Diallo Substitutes Joey Sim Razali Johari Anthony Bahadur Something to Add from Wreckidigidy: A win finally but still a winless run in 17 games is really perturbing, although down inside the 2-1 win over DPMM will always be inside me no matter what FIFA or FAS say. It is obviously gratifying to see a team filled with 5 Prime League players in the starting line-up, 6 including reserve striker Israel Tan, but I shudder at the thought of Aide keeping this line-up for 2010. I always enjoy seeing young players getting their chance to play but truthfully the defense needed 2 strong, level headed players. I am sad to see Yamamoto not involved, and it might be sign they he is leaving. I hope Nur Azli is retained, his versatily would be needed. Of course the triumvirate of the Diallo brothers and Murphy Wiredu showed what they can do up front. If we can get a good midfielder to play down the middle and a real target man in front, this might work out well. Well paper talk again but thanks for the memories of 2009, some euphoric, mostly disappointment.

S.League 2009 Match 31 (or whatever screwup number it is now)

	Opponent: Young Lions Date: 31st Oct, 1930hrs Venue: Jalan Besar Stadium Final Score: 4 – 2 (Obadin Aikhena 2′(p), Fazli Ayob 21′, Khairul Nizam 33′, Gabriel Quak Jun Yi 66′ – Murphy Wiredu 3′, 9′)
For crying out loud, make the goalkeeper THE TOP SIGNING next season. Starting Lineup Amos Boon (C) Nurhidayat Kamarudin Darrel Tan Lau Meng Meng Jaspar Seet (Sobrie Mazelan 65′) Nor Azli Yusoff Ashley Ow Farizal Basri (Anthony Bahadur 75′) Murphy Wiredu Abdoulaye Diallo Mamadou Diallo Substitutes Joey Sim Razali Johari

Wrecki’s Monthly Review: October 2009

I really had my heart out for DPMM, not because they are one of few sides that are willing to be beaten by my wretched team but they had added so much color since joining our league, stepping on everyone’s tale, took the league by storm, snagged the League Cup, had 3 defenders suspended till forever, close to securing second and then been expunged because FAS did not dare to trifle with the mother ship.

Time and again I had said I was not a big fan of the Bruneians because like many I believed in only Singapore clubs to play in the S League plus making their home games so inaccessible was a absurd.

But personally I felt they should at least like the Bandar Seri Begawan side to finish the season with about 5 games left to play when their records had been rescinded.

SAFFC clinched their 4th S League title on the trot against Sengkang Punggol on live TV (but was quite amazed at how they had to work for it against a side which include Zul Nor Farahin, Ashley Ow, Jasper Seet and with Nor Azli as centernack, Farizal as striker and Sazali as leftback).
Their form sort of slated before the finishing line, sadly it came at the wrong time.

It is true I would like to see a new champion but cannot deny the fact that SAFFC still is the team that could grind the wins while their closest challengers falter when it matters the most.

The race for second place is still very much on as many cannot envision Geylang United lifting the Singapore Cup against a probably Bangkok Glass side who ran rampant over compatriots Samut Sahkon 6-0 in their semi final first leg.
Therefore if any of Tampines Rovers, Goombak United and Home United can clinch the bridesmaid role, they will particpate in the AFC Cup in 2010.

Talent wise I felt Home United should be a strong representative for the cup competition but with Sivaji at helms, they would never win anything and they knew it.
By the way legendary defender S Subramani, shrouded with injury the whole season long, finally declared on hanging up his boots. He would be a tough act to emulate and a big hole to fill for the Protectors for sure.

Tampines Rovers will be in for a major restructure for the new season now that even Sutee Suksomkit had joined A League side Melbourne Victory (albeit a short contract as stipulated).
The club and more specifically head coach Vorawan (so meaning he is staying?) stated that the new team’s nucleus will be on Hassan Sunny, Seiji Kaneko, Zul Zainal, Akihiro Nakamura, Shukor Zailan, Qiu Li and Khairul Amri, so I would not be surprised the likes of Benoit Croissant, Shariff Samat, Fathi Yunos etc be ushered out as part of the renewing process.
Gangly Croissant had got some A League sides interested.

Gombak United might be the weakest among the 3 but I felt if they can lure a good center midfielder, they might do pretty well next season as well as long as the likes of Obatola, Agu, Bah, Shevki and Jeremy stay.

Young Lions roused themselves up nicely and now should claim 9th place in the new 11 team table structure.
A bulk of that squad travel to Vietnam for some Newspaper Cup and were knocked out in the semi final against Vietnam U19 before losing the 3rd placing by the Viet U21 side.
I am still not convinced these youngsters will do any well in the SEA Games in Laos next month, but then as they said football is round.

The senior Lions also traveled to Vietnam to participate in a Ho Chi Minh City Cup which featured the likes of the host nation, former USSR constituent Turkmenistan and a Korean University Selection side.
The Lions scraped through against the Korean undergrads 1-0 before beating Turkmenistan 4-2.
Vietnam failed to make it 2 win out of 2 as the Koreans had beaten them, meaning they needed to beat Singapore by a big margin which they did not as it was 2-2 when the dust settled.
The makeshift Singapore national team had warmed the hearts of the fans back home which saw the likes of Khairul Amri, Fazrul Nawaz and Masrezwan Masturi scoring in the national colors since being recalled after their injury woes.

The build up to the hot-blooded double face off with the Thai, with new manager Bryan “Marvel” Robson coming in, had been boiling to the right temperature.
The final piece of preparation, a friendly with the Indonesian national side, would give Raddy the line up he will pick for the first game on the 14th of November.

It might involved the 4 players who had started their ISL career brightly, maybe not Ridhuan Muhammad.
Noh Alam Shah was slowly building a cult support at Arema as his tenacity and most importantly goals prompted them to the top of the table so far.
Precious would be heading south after the Singapore-Thai games but Aleksandar Duric made a U-Turn in joining the same club, stating the details on the contract differed from the initial agreement. That’s why always read between the lines.
Interest of the remaining national team players started to wane even before someone rang our club chairman for the interest on Jerry Bartholomeusz and Joey Sim…yah right.
However the likes of SAFFC’s Masahiro Fukazawa, Albirex’s Kenji Arai & Takatoshi Uchida and a player from Super Reds might be heading to Indonesia before the year is up.

In truth, the past 8 months had been tumultuous for myself following with Sengkang Punggol in the S League.
The league did stuttered a little before looking to be decent by the first round before the referee problem, waning attendance, SAFFC’s supremacy and players leaving the game.
The 2010 edition looked bleak for now and everyone yearned for an injection of new life, we just have to wait and see in the development.

S.League 2009 Match 30

	Opponent: SAFFC Date: 16th Oct, 1930hrs Venue: Jalan Besar Stadium Final Score: o – 1 (Aleksandar Duric 15′)
Starting Lineup Amos Boon (C) Lau Meng Meng Zul Nor Farahin (Murphy Wiredu 50′) Hiroyuki Yamamoto Jaspar Seet (Azhar Baksin 56′) Nor Azli Yusoff Ashley Ow Farizal Basri Sazali Salleh Abdoulaye Diallo Mamadou Diallo (Indra Sahdan Daud 64′) Substitutes Jerry Bartholomeusz Noh Rahman Joey Sim Israel Tan

Poor, Poor Dolphins

With Young Lions’ plucky 1-0 victory over Tampines Rovers, SAFFC had clinched the S League title for 2009 despite in the rut of back to back losses to Gombak United and Super Reds.

It also meant that they need not unleash their fangs on the televised game on Friday against the team that even their Pesta Sukan 7’s winning women team (?!) can beat them easily.

Sengkang Punggol FC had been the big “D” in the word “despondent” and it was no closed door secret.
Since attaining a hard earn point against Gombak United at home, the team had lost the desire to win point whatsoever and as now acting head coach would emphasize, they are banking of youth for the remainder of the games and most probably next term.

It was a clear indication that the team had lost any trace of will to try to climb away from the bottom two.
With Young Lions’ stark improvement in their performance (now a good 8 points difference), 10th place looked unlikely as well.
Remember not too long back, Aide was talking about them still in hunt of the 8th placed finish?

In a season which opened so much promise before plunged down in drastic fashion at the word “go”,  the team in the end played under the false pretension and meekly played like Sengkang Punggol of the old.
The usual cannon fodder who contemplated sticking near the bottom except it was done with a less illustrious team in the past and Hougang Stadium became a ground for easy meat for every single team who came visiting.

From the recent pre-match interviews which I felt was quite unwarranted to question the passion of the senior teams and the constant lobbying for the Prime league players.
Under the surface, one could deduce it was not a happy camp in Sengkang Punggol as players with the caliber of national team players Indra Sahdan and Noh Rahman as well as ISL best midfield talent, Abdoulaye Diallo, CSL top scorer Murphy Wiredu, Canadian amateur league best attacking talent Anthony Bahadur, 1998 Tiger Cup winner Azhar Baksin and past League Cup champions like Zahid Ahmad and Sazali Salleh had laughed off how this club just failed to meet their standards.

Seriously if the Prime League squad is that good, why was it still at bottom 2 in the recently concluded Prime League as well?

When I saw picture of a much delighted Indra Sahdan lifting the Sultan of Selangor Cup played 2 Sundays back which he scored once and was terrorizing the defense of the Malaysian state side, I wondered if he had conserved his energy for the big stage or just our team had not been delivering decent goal scoring chances for him.
At it stood he still scored 7 league goals and the last was back when Sang Nila Utama found the island of Temasek, perhaps his plot had been lost or the part time studies had took too much of a toil on the first Singapore player to reach a century of goals in the S League.

It was a running joke for us fans of Sengkang Punggol FC for the bulk of 2009.
We definitely do not be spoken in the same breath as Balestier Khalsa and Young Lions, 2 basically budding teams or even with Woodlands Wellington and Albirex Niigata.

We should be competing in the same length as Geylang and Gombak but in the end it became a story we came to get accustomed to.

The attendance in matches of late does not lie. No one cares about a losing team and kudos to those who bother still attending matches and shower support to a team who simply left their most ardent fans aloof.

With DPMM FC’s fate still hang on the balance now that FIFA had unsanctioned their involvement in any sort of football, the Brunei team’s participation in the S League and associated competitions would wipe clean off our memories.
In best performance of the season, we clinched our last of 5 wins against the Wasps at home and it might become null as we were pushed to the cellar of the league table which perhaps we could not argue we do not deserve to be there especially we had failed to beat Balestier Khalsa in 3 attempts.

Well some would say let’s look forward to the season after for some upheaval of fortunes, I just say stop giving me false hope once again.

S.League 2009 Match 29

	Opponent: Home United Date: 12th Oct, 1930hrs Venue: Clementi Stadium Final Score: 1 – 0 (Naruphol Ar-Romsawa 57′)
Starting Lineup Amos Boon (C) Farizal Basri Nor Azli Yusoff Hiroyuki Yamamoto Ashley Ow Noh Rahman Jaspar Seet (Azhar Baksin 53′) Sazali Salleh (Zul Nor Farahin 88′) Murphy Wiredu Anthony Bahadur Mamadou Diallo Substitutes Jerry Bartholomeusz Aide Iskandar Joey Sim Sobrie Mazelan Israel Tan

S.League 2009 Match 29

	Opponent: DPMM Date: 6th Oct, 2015hrs Venue: Hassanal Bolkiah Stadium Final Score: POSTPONED
Huh?

S.League 2009 Match 28

	Opponent: Balestier Khalsa Date: 28th Sep, 1945hrs Venue: Hougang Stadium Final Score: 1 – 3 (Mamadou Diallo 50′ – Anantha Rajan 12′(p), Oh In Kyun 47′,71′)
Starting Line-up Amos Boon Lau Meng Meng (Shane Neubronner 56′) Nor Azli Yusoff Jerry Bartholomeusz (Zul Nor Farahin 79′) Hiroyuki Yamamoto Noh Rahman (Raymond Kwa 49′) Abdoulaye Diallo Azhar Baksin Sazali Salleh Indra Sahdan Daud (C) Mamadou Diallo Substitutes Razali Johari Joey Sim Sobrie Mazelan