A well deserved win finally for DRM!

There was a mix of nerves and apprehension when the name of our opponents for this week's friendly was announced. NBT FC being one of the more established league clubs in Brunei would surely make mince meat out of us, like 'knife through butter' i heard one player comment.

So it was to everyone's relief that the team that turned up at BSRC on Monday wasn't the better known league team, but the KB branch team.

Rahim much like Adebayor for Arsenal has started off the year with a bang, although slow to start, he scored 2 goals in the last game against HRS and was keen to show that he deserves his starting slot upfront, and he didn't dissapoint.

Paired up with drilling hitman Fadil upfront, the two threatened the NBT goal right from the start. But this time it was Fadil who put on the style, and he was keen on proving a point after being played in defense for a number of games now. Rahim turned provider on almost both occassions, but Dilah DPMM somehow also got into the action to set up Fadil's second goal, after some amazing footwork and pace from Rahim to put them both in a scoring position.

Worth mentioning also is the fact that we managed a clean sheet in the 1st half. The 2pt incentive for a half time clean sheet surely has made its impact on our game, as we seem to be more cautious about letting the soft goals in.

We didn't have near as many subs this time round, the fact that our Ozzie padawans have all ended their summer attachment surely will cause us to take a big hit in match attendance and fresh legs to throw at our opponents in the 2nd half. But the turn up was still good, and stand-in manager for the day, Azelin did a great job with the substitution ensuring everyone had their fair share of 'pitch time'.

NBT faired better in the second half, throwing on their young kids, who i have to admit created all sorts of headaches for us. Just how you are supposed to man-mark 15 year old kids on steroids is a puzzle to me. Flash a hint of body contact and the ref is all too willing to oblige with a whistle and a card, give him too much space and he runs circles around your age-ing legs.

In that sense, we did well to limit the second half damage to two goals. Our two goal cushion gone, we threw on 'playa' of the month who was hungry to prove his worth after some embarrassing blunders in recent 'fun' games.

He showed just why he is the main man at the moment, when an Amir S long ball from the middle of the park reached his massive frame, and he brushed off the defending centre-back with ease to toe poke the ball into the bottom left corner of goal for our third and decisive goal.

NBT still had plenty to say, and if it weren't for a last ditch all out tacke from nowhere by Alex in defense the game probably would have ended a 3 goal draw.

Still we had time for another moment in the match, an inswinging corner from Julberg was met powerfully by Saiful Bulan who also took a defender with him at the same time. His goal bound header cleared off the line by a reliefed looking NBT kid.

So 3 - 2 the game ended. Our first win of the 2008 season and it was truly deserved after some heart-breaking matches in the past few weeks where we simply never found the finishing touch to kill of our games.