Asterix Reds 2 - 1 Liverpool Supporters Club Malaysia (SSLKL Cup Quarter Final)

Two first half goals from Bunmi Sodiya and Adam Scott helped Asterix
Reds to a comfortable victory over Liverpool Supporters Club. The win
puts in the last four of the competition with our semi-final opponents
coming from the match between BMFC and Keppong Chinese later today.

All the talk before the match was making sure we were mentally up for
this game. We knew if we wanted the win enough, we have the
footballing ability and quality in our side to get the result. We
started well, winning many of the 50/50's and playing much of the game
in the opponents half. We came close to scoring on a couple of
occasions but it was Liverpool who were to get the ball in the net
first. After about 20 minutes, the ref awarded and indirect free-kick
right on the edge of our box. The Liverpool player lifted the free-
kick over the wall and into our net...for a goal kick! Thanks very
much. We responded perfectly. Some good play gave Shashi space and
time on the right wing. His perfectly weighted slide-rule pass was
met first time by Bunmi who lifted the ball over the advancing 'keeper
and into the net. And we got our 2 goal cushion just before half-
time. The 'keeper saved well from a Bunmi Sodiya header and Adam
Scott did his customary poaching by collecting the loose ball and
slotting it into the corner from six yards out. 2-0 it was at the
break.

The second-half was well contested. Both teams had chances to score
but it was Liverpool who got a goal back with about 20 minutes to go.
But we held firm and looked the more likely team to score the next
goal. We defended resolutely and came home comfortable 2-1 winners.

This wasn't our prettiest display - the bumpy pitch at Uniten
prevented much culture - but we did dig deep, play with a lot of fight
and commitment. Ultimately, it was our desire to get the win which
was the decisive factor. There were great performances all-round. Up-
front John MacGachie was always a handful, his ability to win the
ball, hold it or flick it on, frequently got the Liverpool defence on
the back foot. Adam Scott was tireless up front and did some
fantastic work in winning the ball, retaining possession and
fashioning opportunities for himself and others. He deserved more
than his one goal for his skill and efforts. In the middle of the
park, Ian Quirk was like a terrier snapping at the heels of the
Liverpool opponents and pick-pocketing possession with the skill of
Oliver Twist. Bunmi Sodiya was always a threat in the centre, doing a
great job at turning mediocre ball into quality possession and keeping
us at their end of the park. At the back, Ghani Malik was 100%
committed in the centre of defence and let nothing past him all
afternoon; Ragu was outstanding in tucking in when the defence was
moved across the park and providing solid cover by winning absolutely
everything that came his way. In goal, Sugu was as brave as ever, coming off his line on several occasions to make some decisive stops.  I'm sure I've missed some others out,
but rest assured all 16 of us that featured yesterday made significant
contributions in what was a very spirited team performance.

Our next competitive match is the cup semi-final which will be with
BMFC or Keppong Chinese on the weekend of 10/11 May. We'll arrange a
friendly for next weekend; clearly those lads carrying injuries should
take a week off and those in need of match fitness should aim to
play. Your fitness will be important in the final games of the
season. Make sure you keep yourselves in good shape. Asterix for the
Cup!

Mancis 1 - 1 Asterix Reds (SSLKL Premier Division)

This was a game played on a typically sodden pitch at University Putra
Malaysia. Despite having the lion's share of possession and chances,
Asterix Reds did not do enough to put away Mancis; a fine Terry Harris
strike securing a point after Mancis had taken the lead against the
run of play.

Asterix Reds started this game playing some of the best football we've
played this season. We got the ball away from the soggy centre of the
pitch and to the flanks early. The strikers and wide midfielders
linked well to deliver some quality balls into the box.
Unfortunately, the ball never quite fell for us and we failed to
convert our dominance in the first 20 minutes into goals. Mancis
always looked like they could threaten us on the break and created a
couple of half-chances with fast counter attacks in the second 20
minutes. Neither team could break the deadlock and we came in at half-
time at 0-0 but confident that we would take the lead in the second
half.

But it was Mancis who were to break the deadlock. After about 10
minutes of the second half Mancis counterattacked and put a ball
across our box. An unlucky deflection off our defender's chest sent
the ball to the back post where the Mancis player was unmarked. He
made no mistake and finished to give Mancis a goal against the run of
play. This spurred the Asterix Reds back into life and we began a
period of dominance that quickly resulted in an equaliser. Danny
Burkahrd made a surging run from the back, collecting a square ball
from Ian Quirk, beating a couple of challenges before sliding the ball
through to Terry Harris in the right channel. Terry did well to beat
the defenders and get some space for himself inside the box. But with
an angle more acute that Roy's CLT cough to shoot into, we all thought
Tel would opt to square the ball across the box. But shoot he did and
the ball rocketed past the 'keeper into the back of the net. 1-1 and
it was game on.

We continued to press forward for the last 25 minutes and used our
possession to create some additional chances. Their keeper made a
superb stop from a Ghani Malik effort that was headed for the top
corner. We reverted to a 3-4-3 formation for the last 10 minutes in
an effort to take all 3 points and continued to threaten a winner.
John MacGachie - making his first appearance this season - was a
handful up-front and thought he'd scored the decisive goal only to be
perhaps harshly ruled offside. Terry Harris also had a chance to
score with a towering header from a corner late in the game, the ball
going just over the bar.

I know we didn't get the the result we wanted from the game yesterday, but
we have to take comfort from our performance. We were playing the
team that's won the league for the last 2 seasons and is top of the
league this season. We dominated the game in terms of possession and
chances, we restricted to Mancis to a couple of half-chances on the
break and just lacked that little bit of luck and ruthlessness in
front of goal that would have given us the victory.

The result moves us up into third position in the league (BMFC are 2nd and Mancis are top) and leaves us 6 points adrift of the leaders with a game in
hand.   To win the league we thus have to win all our 4 remaining fixtures - BMFC twice, Astaka and Sang Chuan (all games I am confident we can win) - and hope that Mancis slip up.   There's a good chance of this since Mancis' remaining three games are versus BMFC, Astaka and LSCM.

Even if Mancis don't slip up, wins in our remaining 4 games would guarantee us second place in the league, our best finish ever.  Frankly, I have a feeling that Mancis will drop points in one or more of their remaining games and that this title race is still very much alive.    

So, we need to put today's result behind us, maintain our focus and confidence and get
back to winning ways against Sang Chuan next weekend.  They're a good side and we'll need to play well to beat them; a win versus Sang Chuan next week, keeps us very much in the hunt for the title.  Let's make sure we retain our hunger and focus next week and do the business against Sang Chuan.

Stato's Corner

Welcome to the first edition of what should become a fairly regular slot called Stato’s Corner.  Stato will endeavour to inform, entertain and delight all you Asterix Reds fans with some amazing facts about our progress during the season.

Firstly a simple summary of all the games up to now with scorers and top scorer charts.  Also below are some very interesting facts!  One thing missing is the assists charts but Stuart is so far out in front in that there’s no point tracking it!

Competition Opponents Score Scorers

Fr Astaka 3 2 Stuart 2 Adam

Expat Redstar 1 1 Tom S

Expat BMFC 2 6 Adam Terry

Expat Vikings 1 1 Andy

Fr British Hish Comm 5 3 Adam 2 Andy 2 Stuart

Fr Mancis 1 1 Dave J

SSL PR Vikings 2 3 Terry Adam

Fr Maluri FC 5 1 Stuart Adam 2 Terry Andy

SSL PR Astaka 7 0 Terry Stuart Ian Q Adam 2 Tom S O.G

SSL PR Liverpool SC 1 1 Terry

SSL PR Barflies 2 1 Adam 2

SSL PR Mancis 0 1

Fr Conn FC 7 1 Aidil 2 Simon Ryan B Anil Andy Ian J

Cup Wolves 3 0 Adam Tom S Simon

Cup Astaka 1 1 Terry

Cup Barflies 4 0 Adam Stef Tom S Terry

Fr SR Rangers 3 2 Adam Paul Andy

SSL PR Sang Chuan 3 1 Adam 2 Terry

SSL PR Vikings 1 3 Adam

Cup DHFC 3 2 Adam 2 Terry

Fr Expat Lions 3 0 Paul Adam Bumni

Cup UK Rovers 4 2 Kisho 2 Adam Bumni

Fr KL Soccer Coaches 7 0 Shaun 3 Tom S Anthony Terry Stuart

SSL PR Liverpool SC 4 2 Terry 3 Anil

SSL PR Barflies 3 0 Ian Q 2 Bumni

Summary

Games Goals For Goals against

25 76 35

Won Drawn Lost

16 5 4

Scoring Charts

Scorers All League Cup Friendlies

Adam 21 8 5 8

Terry 13 7 3 3

Stuart 6 1 5

Andy 6 6

Tom S 5 1 2 2

Ian Q 3 3

Bumni 3 1 1 1

Shaun Sweeney 3 3

Kisho 2 2

Simon 2 1 1

Paul 2 2

Aidil 2 2

Anil 2 1 1

Stef 1 1

Ian J 1 1

Dave J 1 1

Ryan B 1 1

Anthony 1 1

OG 1 1

76

Interesting Facts!

We've only lost 4 games out of 25 but 3 of those losses have been in the league.

Last Saturday's win against Liverpool is our first win this season against a team that finished above us last year.

Vikings are our bogey team this year, having played them 3 times and we’re yet to register a victory.

We've drawn 5 times - strangely each time the score has been 1 all. 

We’re averaging just over 3 goals per game.

We lose 1.4 goals per game.

We've kept 6 clean sheets in all but only 2 in the league.

We've only failed to score once in 25 games, against last year's champions Mancis.

Best win of the season is 7-0 which we've done twice along with a 7-1 victory.

Our worst defeat came at the hands of our old rivals BMFC in the preseason expat cup - a shocking 6-2 defeat!

Adam is way ahead in the scoring charts for all goals but Terry is only 1 behind in the league goals after recent his hat trick against LSC.

Adam has banged in a brace in no fewer than 6 separate games but he's still awaiting that elusive hat trick.

Shaun Sweeney scored a hat trick on his debut and Terry has one hat trick this season.

We've had 18 separate goal scorers so far this year for our 75 goals.

Andy is joint 3rd top scorer despite only playing in friendlies.  Imagine what he’ll do next year when allowed to play!

We played in the only cup group to contain 3 Premier teams and comfortably topped out group undefeated. 

Terry is our only player to have had a newspaper article written about him….so far!

Bar Flies 0 - 3 Asterix Reds (SSLKL Premier Division)

A brace from Ian Quirk and a goal from Bunmi Sudiya were enough for
Asterix Reds to notch up another comfortable victory over a depleted
Bar Flies. The 3-points moves us further up the table and keeps us
very much in the race for the title.

Bar Flies started with nine men and after about 15 minutes added a
tenth. By this time we were a goal up. After Bala advanced the ball
down the right Ian Quirk picked up the ball in the inside-right
position and skipped inside the challenges of a defender to make his
way into the box. He moved the ball nicely onto his right foot to
avoid the challenge of the keeper and slotted into the empty net from
a tight angle. We dominated and got our second just before half-
time. Bunmi Sudiya burying a header on the follow up after his shot
hit the bar. Ian Quirk got his second with a header early in the
second half which killed the game off. We continued to play the game
at the Bar Flies end of the pitch but didn't hit the net again. 3-0
is how it ended.

This was not necessarily one of our best footballing displays but
still was a good workman-like performance. Even though Bar Flies were
a man down, we still had to win the match and we did that very
comfortably. Not for the first time this season, I was disappointed
with the conduct of the Bar Flies players. They fell over and
screamed like schoolgirls at the slightest hint of contact. More
worrying they constantly kicked and put in some awful tackles from
behind on our players. The ref was clearly biased. The trigger for
Bar Flies to receive a free kick seemed to be that one of their
players simply needed to ask the ref for one. The ref took no action
on their players - not even a yellow card - for tackles that would
otherwise warrant a straight red. On the flip side of this, I want to
compliment the Asterix Reds players for their conduct. We didn't
react at all to the provocation of the Bar Flies players or the
referee's bias and got on with the game. This required significant
restraint and is testament to the strength and temperament of the
Asterix Reds this season. We know we'll encounter situations like
this again this season. Let's make sure we continue to react in the
manner we did yesterday, ignore the distractions and focus on winning
the football match. Well done all those who did this yesterday.

These three points keep us very much in the hunt for the title.
Amongst the other teams in with a shout for the title in action
yesterday, Vikings lost and BMFC's game was called off so we gain 3
points on both of these teams. We're now 6 points behind the leaders,
Mancis, on whom who we have a game in hand and play next Sunday. A
win on Sunday would put us three points behind Mancis with a game in
hand. We also have one of the best goal differences in the league.

I'm very happy with the way we've been playing well this last month or
so. Yesterday's victory was our sixth in a row. Our confidence and
belief, as it should be, is very high. As we enter the home straight
we need to maintain our focus and keep churning our victories in our
games this month. As long as we keep doing this, we'll be top of the
league by the end of April.