5hb: Shafie scored home right at the death to cap a remarkable afternoon for Kroniz FC in which they staged a rousing comeback from two goals down to force a draw against Star Family FC at MD Field.
The tutong-born centre-back’s scored in the 59th minute sent Kroniz faithful into raptures and salvaged a point for his team in a match that looked beyond their reach early in the first half.
Star Family Fc looked to have wrapped up the points in the first half with two goals, but a half-time rollicking by Kroniz players did the trick for Kroniz.
“I told them, look at the first half,” said Gnal in the absent of both Bab and Aripin. “Look at the kind of goals conceded. Is that the way you play football? If we don’t win, we will have a mountain to climb.”
Kroniz left it late to respond, but managed to leave MD Field with a point when all had seemed lost.
The hot sunny day that preceded the match had cast an ominous shadow over the afternoon’s proceedings, but the players were not to be disappointed by a cracker of an encounter that was end-to-end stuff from start to finish. However Kroniz were punished for a string of missed chances.
It took kroniz just five minutes to come undone, even as Star family FC looked the more likely to concede in the early exchanges.
Barely two minutes into the game, awful defending in their penalty area allowed SFFC dispossess Kroniz and advance on goal.
SRRC forward made the most of some inattentive defending by the Kroniz backline, taking the ball past them and slotting home from an angle, with Rosli looking conspicuously out of position.
The Kroniz defence had gone to sleep, and were duly punished.
When Kronizs created chances at the other end, however, they found SFFC keeper in particularly inspired form.
SFFC however, had no such problem moments later. Possession was given away in sloppy fashion by Kroniz in their half, and the ball was delivered into the box. SFFC striker rose high to nod the ball back across the goal, and Rosli spilled it under the challenge of a pink shirt. The ball fell kindly to SEEC striker, who slotted home for the second.
Kroniz continued to have the lion’s share of the chance in the second half but just couldn't convert the chances into goals until a completely unmarked Asri collected the ball and darted down with a sudden change of pace on the left side of the penalty area, and the seasoned forward slide his shot into the post.
Then came Shafie’s half-volley tongue-lashing shot, Aliuddin cornered did well to get past SFFC players and, having advanced into the box, Shafie did just enough at the right moment to volley his shot at the goal to set up an edgy finish, but the scoreline would stand at 2-2 when the final whistle was blowed. .
Gnal paid tribute to his side for the determination they displayed in coming back from two goals down. “We showed a lot of character to come back, but I thought we gave away two soft goals early on, and then it was an uphill task from there.
“But the players showed character, they were attacking all the way. “On the whole, it was very good to have come back. This is something good.”
“I thought we were much more there,” he said, gesturing with his hands, “but they didn’t have to work for their goals. We’ve got to work on that.”
“SFFC are young and fast, they penetrated our midfield, we were unable to cushion their attack, and we allowed them to come. Our midfield didn’t fall back enough, and we let them come at us again and again.
“But it was a very good performance to have come back. We need the points, we need to push ourselves up".
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