Written by: Phoon Jia Hui

After a 1-1 draw against Singapore Cubs in their opening fixture for the 2014 Great Eastern Yeo’s Prime League clash, Warriors FC were held to another stalemate by the National Football Academy (NFA) U18 on Saturday evening at the Bukit Gombak Stadium in a game which ended 0-0.

Against their more experienced counterparts, the U18 team defended resiliently and proved they were no pushovers. On the other hand, the Warriors team managed to get into good positions throughout but were let down by poor finishing.

It was the U18 team who nearly got their noses in front in the 10th minute.

After latching onto a visionary pass from the back by skipper Muhelmy Suhaimi, Zulfadhmi Suzliman then raced through on goal and opted to take a shot which was foiled by Warriors custodian Fahmi Ja’afar.

Prior to that, Warriors’ Suria Prakash had his effort chalked off for offside at the other end.

Hafiz Sulaiman then nearly punished a miscommunication at the back between Tham Yong Jun and Daniel Shafiq on 20 minutes but the Warriors midfielder could only poke the loose ball into the side-netting.

Hafiz had another pop at goal just before the break but his effort this time flew straight into the gloves of Tham.

The second half saw Warriors coach Kevin Wee make minor reshuffles in his side as they looked to correct certain things.

A Zulfadhmi freekick into the box right after the break nearly resulted in a goal but Ashshiddiq Misban just failed to get in a touch at the far post before Amin Rossady came close with a fierce drive from the edge of the area which Tham managed to parry for a corner.

The home side then had Umar Akhbar to thank as the right-back made two crucial challenges to thwart Suria and then substitute Shahrul Syafiq when both looked certain  to score.

At the end of the day, both teams had to settle for a point each after failing to find that elusive goal that would have earned them all three.