Story by REDintern Nathiyaah Sakthimogan. Photos by Stefanus Ian/Red Sports.

Jovian Goh (ACSI #7) celebrating his goal with his teammates. (Photo 1 © Stefanus Ian/Red Sports)

Jovian Goh (ACSI #7) celebrating his goal with his teammates. (Photo 1 © Stefanus Ian/Red Sports)

St Andrew’s Junior College, Tuesday, April 3, 2018 — Anglo-Chinese School (Independent) clinched their first victory of the season after beating Pioneer Junior College (PJC) 3-1 in their National A Division Football preliminary round group match which came to an abrupt end due to bad weather conditions.

The game was evenly matched as both teams had a fair share of the possession. While PJC were a tad more attacking in the first half, it was their opponents who went into the break with a 2-1 lead. ACS then started the second half by extending their lead after Ryan Ho (ACSI #10) got his second of the match. PJC keeper will be keen to take lessons from this game after his errors resulted in both of Ryan Ho’s (ACSI #10) goals.

The two goal hero spoke after the game about his goals:”My first goal was from the free-kick and I wanted to just put it in the box but I did not expect it will go in. My second one was meant to be a cross, for sure.”

The game saw its first goal from ACS(I) in the 19th minute. After a long lob from the right bounced over the PJC keeper, the ball hit the bar and rebounded kindly for Jovian Goh (ACSI #7) who headed it into the goal.

Unshaken by the opening goal, PJC continued to pose threats to the opposing defence and it paid off when they were awarded a penalty in the 28th minute. Captain Izz Afiq (PJC #10) stepped up to convert the penalty and calmly slotted it to the right of the keeper to level the scores.

Both sides were carelessly giving away many fouls and one eventually led to a goal. Ryan Ho (ACSI #10) got his first of the match when the opposing goal keeper could not catch his innocuous free-kick from long distance. The goal restored ACS(I)’s lead as they went into the break.

In the second half, ACS(I) were quick out of the blocks as they extended their lead within the first two minutes after Ryan Ho’s (ACSI #10) attempted cross was fumbled in by the PJC keeper. ACS(I) were a constant threat down the wings for most of the second half but the PJC defence kept them at bay.

The two goal deficit did not stop PJC from causing problems to their opposing defenders but they struggled to find the final pass in the last third.

With time still left on the clock, the match was unfortunately stopped due to the bad weather conditions giving ACS(I) their first three points of the campaign. “I think we did much better than our first match and we managed to communicate and work together better today,” said match winner Ryan Ho (ACSI #10).

After the match, PJC coach Isa Haleem spoke about his team’s performance. “I think we had an equal game at the start, up till we conceded. It was an easy goal to concede and that is where we may have started to lose it but I believe if we had the extra 10 minutes, we could have done something.”

ACS(I) will be hoping to build on this win in their next game against Anglo-Chinese Junior College (ACJC), while PJC will aim to bounce back from this defeat when they meet Yishun Junior College (YJC) next.

Score
ACS(I) vs PJC
Halftime: 2-1
Fulltime: 3-1

Scorers
ACS(I)
Jovian Goh (#7) – 1 goal
Ryan Ho (#10) – 2 goals

Scorers
PJC
Izz Afiq (#10) – 1 goal

ACS(I) Roster
Ruben Lim (#1), Shuang Lee (#2), Jeremiah Lee (#3), Brennan Lim (#4), Gregory Ethan (#5), Keith Lee (#6), Jovian Goh (#7), Neal Kok (#8), Rezwan Ahmad (#9), Ryan Ho (#10), R Surya (#11), Jaydon Luah (#12), D Bharathwaaj (#13), Mohamed Safwan (#14), Jonathan Lim (#15), Trevor James (#16), Brandon Thio (#17), Amresh Chandrasekaran (#18), Samuel Heng (#19), Gerald Tan (#20)

PJC) Roster
Aman Rusydi (#1), Muhammad Said (#2), Zikri Hakimi(#3), Rifqi Reza (#4), Owen Foo (#5), Lim Hong Shing (#6), Brandon Ng (#7), Jia Wei (#8), Nigel Cheong (#9), Izz Afiq (#10), Shawn Yap (#11), Matthew Saw (#12), Min Jun (#13), Wan Hazmi (#14), Joshua Yew (#15), Isaac Lee (#16), Maadesh Kumar (#17), Charan Kumar (#18), Tan Sze Young (#19), Javier Neo (#20)

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