Hilderinc Football Club

Playing their only second game since deliberately taking their time with full-fledged football, Hilderinc FC had another opportunity to put through the paces, both the seasoned Blacks and the fledglings, in the Hilderinc Football Club Invitational against, interestingly named, Judas DuTua FC.

Having returned to training last week to iron out the creases following their friendly game two weeks ago, the Blacks were confident of a better showing, but most importantly, finding fluidity in returning to playing the Hilderinc Way, an objective, firmly fixed to achieve, and starting with two debutants and four others with just one game under their belt in the colours, synergy built in training was key, rather than any accomplishment of performance, and this bearing in mind only five players out of the sixteen member squad were actually from the pre-pandemic cast, which also had Ian Morris and Div Peiris, both playing with injuries and were far from their effective best.

Far from any blistering start, the Hilderincs were measured in their approach, dealing with the early initiative from the opponents, but progressively controlling the pace of the game, and it was no surprise that the first opportunity fell to the Blacks when debutant, Zac Soh was unfortunate to see his attempt cleared off the line inside the open 10mins.

After several missed chances, tt would take until the 26th minute that the Blacks finally find the breakthrough after Danzal Han swept in the opener after the opponents failed to deal with a goalmouth flurry after another good work from Zac Soh down the flanks.

The rest of the half was patchy with speculative approach without tangible results, but the Hilderincs were pleased with a slender lead, though more could have come out of their endeavours.

The restart saw the Blacks come under renewed pressure from the opponents who were keen to get back into the game as soon as possible, but though facing some discomfort, the HFC backline remained watertight, and was able to repel everything that was being thrown at them.

Having kept their focus against the early onslaught, the Hilderincs were once again in control of the proceedings, though their lack of game time together was apparent, as they found translating their possession to any meaningful innovation.

While the introduction of Div Peiris and Danial Hairul to the attack added renewed excitement, living on the edge on the back was an accident waiting to happen, and on the hour the Blacks were penalised with a dubious penalty when Sergey Darovskikh was very harshly adjudged to have handled the ball, and with the opponents pulling level, the Hilderincs had every reason to feel highly aggrieved.

However, making a couple of ruthless changes, and with Danial Hairul becoming ever so influential, the Hilderinc regained the lead 7mins later when, Danzal Han swept in his brace, after finding himself in the prefect position after Div Peiris’ initial shot was blocked, after a well-worked move involving Basil Chai and the impressive winger.

The Blacks extended their advantage barely 2mins later when, Danial Hairul’s deft backheel was delightfully sent in by Fahmy Barker, for Zac Soh to nod in his goal on his debut.

Though a late second goal for the opponents against the run of play was annoying, the Hilderincs were good to see off the game without much stress.

And while a return to winning ways after two years is a good feel, the objectives of working towards a well-oiled side is a more critical ambition.

A return to the training is next on the agenda for the Blacks as they keep working to be better than what they were yesterday.

Hilderinc FC 3 : Judas DuTua FC 2

Goals: Danzal Han (2), Zac Soh

Yellow Card: Mubin Rezaman

Starting Line-up

1. Jose Kasijo

2. Tan Eu Ren

3. Nicholas Ledenmark

4. Sergey Darovskikh

5. Chua Yuxuan

6. Aitor Fernandez

7. Basil Chai

8. Danzal Han

9. Zac Soh

10. Ian Morris

11. Fahmy “Ollie” Barker

Substitutes

12. Noel Phua

13. Divanka “Div” Peiris

14. Danial Hairul

15. Muhammad “Mo” Iqbal

16. Mubin Rezaman