Match Review: Singapore Football Club vs Aioli Monkeys FC

• GK Ronnie Smollett
• DF Jack Cullinane
• MD Tim Walter
• MD Anthony Garreau
• -- Andrew Hutcheon
• -- Ross Plain
• -- Rob Benson
• -- Matt McCole
• -- Saatwik Kaul
• -- Adam Bowden
• -- Simon Lloyd

• DF Collins Mbeutcha
• ST Robert Eziakor
• -- Doorjoo Dashnyam
• -- Mike Hemmingway

Hemmingway strikes in earnest

SFC showed their depth in class, as they ran out 3-2 winners in a tightly contested game versus Purple Monkeys. Andrew Hutcheon was the first man to find the back of the net, but as the Stonehaven Saviour turned to celebrate, his goal was adjudged to be offside. As you were. Instead, it was Ross Plain that finally opened the scoring, after a cagey opening half. The West Country hitman created the opportunity for himself, by intercepting an errant Purple Monkey’s pass, before finishing neatly over the onrushing Pacella. SFC 1-0. The game continued at a strong pace with both teams matching each other well. Purple Monkeys eventually found their equalizer after a succession of corners. 1-1. Shortly afterward, via an uncharacteristic mix-up, the SFC defence gifted Monkeys a second. With the score 2-1 with just ten minutes to go the men in purple clearly felt the day was theirs. SFC decided otherwise. Tim Walter who had been battling hard tackles and provocation throughout the game pounced on a bouncing ball in the box. The blond bombshell’s technique held true, and his strike whistled past the flailing arms of the Monkey’s keeper to make it 2-2. With five minutes to go a draw was the last thing on SFC’s minds. Mike Hemmingway and Robert Ezakior continued to hound a creaking backline and pressure began to build. Finally with moments to spare Ezakior received the ball from Cullinane, but still with plenty to do. The Nigerian live-wire promptly jinxed past two defenders before crossing. His ball found, terrace favourite, Mike Hemmingway at the back post, who calmly headed the ball back past Pacella to secure all three points. A great comeback from SFC showing their desire, resilience, and depth of squad. Thank you to Purple Monkeys for what was, by and large, a well-conducted game. There’s no doubt that the same set of players will run other Cosmo teams very hard throughout the season.

• Daniele Pacella GK
• Philip Scharff DF
• Anthony Tongson DF
• Jeremy Langsvatah DF
• Eneko Goya Lujambio MD
• Juan Jose Velaz Sanchez MD
• Harry Shaw MD
• Joe Wright ST
• Peter Besselink ST
• Mark Addy ST
• Matthieu Ginestet --

• Attilio Ferrari MD
• Ivan Avramovic MD
• Marko Popovic ST
• Javier Torrano ST

Close...but no cigar

Aioli Monkeys fell just short on Saturday afternoon, succumbing to a last minute goal against the league’s “newcomers” SFC. The shiny facilities at GEMS academy just about made up for the thousands of dollars spent on taxi fares to get up there. The game itself took a while to get going, both sides struggling to move the ball with real purpose in the first half and despite a couple of openings for each team, the score at half time was 0-0. We fancied our chances in the second half and started the better, pressing well through Joe up top and controlling the tempo through Tito, who was also doing a great job at winding up the (easily wound up) SFC midfield. Unfortunately we gifted our opponents a goal around the hour mark and found ourselves 1-0 down. We needed a good reaction and that’s exactly what happened, quickly turning things around to go 2-1 up before the water break. Eneko with the first from a JJ corner and Anton with the second after his cross evaded everyone, including Ronnie in the SFC goal. The game was there for the taking at this point and crucially we missed a couple of good chances on the break to get the third. SFC kept coming at us and got an equaliser with 15 or so to play. With both teams pushing for the winner and the game stretched it was SFC who found it right at the death when their subs combined well to produce a bit of quality. Thanks to SFC and Alex in the middle. Good game overall but obviously disappointed not to come away with at least a draw, which felt like it would’ve been the right result on the day.