Spartans In The Making

Firstly, FFC would like to apologise for the overdue match report (or fuzzy recall).

Division II has begun, people! More Saturday trips to Dal... nope? BALIK PULAU SPORTS COMPLEX. To break it down, PFL Div.2 is played on full-sized courts (for those wondering, it's 40x20 m) for two periods of 20 minutes with 5 teams participating. Frontliners played the opening game on Saturday against Firebrands.

First game of the season, so every one's pumped and excited, including former 300 captain turned 300 "assistant coach" Michael Cheah, who led the Spartan cheer and gave some players the hairdryer (not Fergie-esque, though) when they came off for substitution.

A note to 300, please wear those green shorts for all matches or else suffer a two-minute bench penalty like Firebrands' Vincent Lim. Down to 4 men, 300 had the opening edge, keeping the ball on Firebrands' half most of the time. And all of a sudden, 300 ran out of gas too fast when Firebrands' came out to attack and scored when James was left unmarked.

The first half ended 0-1 with Firebrands threatening in front of goal and 300 barely making it in front of Firebrands' goal. Although Kyle and Tristan, looking for an equaliser, gave Bryan some work to do. It was obvious that 300 was the underdogs in this game after that 5-0 drubbing in pre-season but made Firebrands sweat for that second goal.

Which, came early in the second half.

300 seemed to have come back to life in the second half after a lazy first. The forwards ran more and came back to defend and spending more time on the other side of the court, with the ball of course. Tristan, especially was not afraid to push forward alone, usually coming up against bigger and better opponents.

Debutant keeper Omprekash did not disappoint and kept the scoreline as reasonable as possible.
300 was outmuscled, outplayed and left chasing shadows, often on the losing end of 50-50 challenges

Soon, Firebrands struck again and delivered the final blow in the last minute.

4-0.

Frontliners could draw many lessons in floorball from this game. Playing as a team for the first time, the forwards learnt to drop back. Newbies like Zoe and the Saints showed good promise as a future asset to 300 and possibly the Spartans while the older ones continue to gain experience.

Next came the coveted Man of the Match Award (a.k.a a can of 100Plus)...*Kuan Yang's attempt at a drum roll*

None other than goalkeeper, Omprekash.

and a special "once in a lifetime" can of 100Plus went to...

#17 who turned 17 on match day. :)