Having played two matches in the inter-school competition, it was to be another 2 weeks before the next game. Hence this friendly was arranged to maintain our match fitness and prepare ourselves for the games ahead. It was a bright and sunny Wednesday morning as everyone made their way to Raffles Institution, eager as always to be able to compete with others. There is always a first for everything and this was to be our first friendly to be played out of our school.

We started off brightly, threatening the opponent’s goal on several occasions. Ryan scored the first goal after a long free hit found him unmarked on the turn. Raffles immediately replied with a great shot from their forward into the top left corner of the goal. Not to be undaunted, we pressed on only for Raffles to take advantage of a steal by slotting the ball just beyond Eugene for their second goal. Before the period ended, Ryan equalized after Nicholas forced their defender to lose possession in front of the goal.

‘C’ Division Friendly
Raffles Institution vs Catholic High School
Raffles Institution
11-4 (2-2, 1-0, 4-1, 4-1)

The second period began with the Raffles players driving repeatedly into our goal area and one of them eventually scored a brilliant solo effort which Eugene could do nothing about. That was to be the only goal of the period which was evenly contested.

In the third period, fatigue got the better of Jonathan, who released the ball out following a routine save only to see a Raffles player intercept the ball and put it into the goal to extend their lead. Not long after, Darrell dribbled the ball down the right side and crossed it into the goal area for Joshua to volley the resulting deflection past the keeper. Our resistance was broken again as a Raffles player ran riot in our half and rounded Jonathan to restore the two goal margin. It was the start of some horrendous defending by our players as they failed to close down on their opponents several times. The pressure got into Derek as he unwittingly deflected an innocent pass into our goal towards the end. The score was 7-3 as the whistle signaled the end of the third period.

The fourth period was a similar affair as Raffles built on their momentum and capitalized on our waning performance levels with some clinical finishing. The defenders were at fault for two of the goals scored while Eugene conceded the other two when he should have done better. The only redeeming point was Nicholas scoring our fourth goal to narrow the goal difference somewhat.

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We put in a decent performance for the first two periods. However, we dropped our guard in the third and never recovered from the setback. A performance like this in the competition would be amounting to suicide and the boys would do well not to commit the same errors as they did today.

Nevertheless, it was a good match to aid our preparation for the coming week. Thanks to Raffles Institution for hosting this friendly game!