RMM 0 Yellow Canaries 2

Squad: Guvnor, Snake, Zak, Joe, Thong, Iceman, Rudi, Foo, Gary, Speedie, Meng

RMM's first "away" sunday game in months as we travel to Uniten in Bangi. Kickoff was at 4.00pm but there only 6 players seen warming up and 3 still gearing up. Kickoff was stalled as long as possible and RMM started the game with only 9 players with a 4-3-1 formation. Despite the disadvantage, RMM created a couple of good chances early on. The best one fell to defender turned attacker Thong who somehow sensed an opportunity and burst into the opposition box. The superstar Batigol who broke through on the right with some nifty footwork spotted Thong's run and rolled a delicious ball into his path. With the whole goal to aim for from 5 yards, he did the unthinkable and sent the ball well wide.

Within minutes RMM fell behind. Some horrendous defending by the makeshift defence left goalkeeper Guvnor with no chance when at the mercy of 2 strikers in the 6 yard box. Latecomers Speedie and Meng arrived just in time for the restart. Speedie's presence on the left flank started to trouble the opponents and was guilty of being greedy when he chose to shoot at the keeper from a tight angle instead of passing to better placed team mates who were unmarked.

The shaky backline was easily exposed everytime the opponents attacked. But thanks to some brilliant goalkeeping from Guvnor RMM managed to keep the score at 0-1 till halftime, which came rather quickly.

Guvnor recognised changes needed to be made in defence and partnered Thong and Snake in the center for the first time with Zak and Meng on the right and left respectively. The changes seemed to work as RMM looked a different side after the break and looked far more dangerous in attack. Foo should have equalised on two ocassions but was denied by some good goalkeeping. The first was when Iceman delivered an inch perfect ball from the left flank. However, his effort was tipped round the post by the keeper. The second was when he picked up a loose ball and went one on one with the keeper who again got a hand to his shot and agonisingly watched the ball hit the wrong side of the post. It wasn't going to be our day...

During all this, Joe decided to have some action too. While running with the ball, an oppnonent no bigger than a dwarf, scratched at his ankles. Joe reacted by jumping 3 feet in the air and coming down with his fist at the naughty dwarf. To the relief of everyone and especially the dwarf, he pulled out in the last second.

Play became scrappy after that as tackles started to fly until the ref threatened to end the game if it continues. The game ended without any further goals despite RMM’s best efforts. As we walked off the field, we found out that there was third “half”.

A fast tiring Iceman decided to take over in goal to unleash Guvnor into battle for the final half. However, the defence was caught napping early on and left the striker a clear run at goal from the left. With everyone expecting him to cross from a tight angle, the striker instead took a shot which rebounded of Iceman into goal. 0-2.

The rest of the game saw RMM attacking relentlessly but unable to make any of the chances count. In the end it was another game to forget.


Match report courtesy of ICEMAN