Singapore Sports School Win; Veterans Share The Spoils

Written by: Phoon Jia Hui

The Singapore Sports School lifted the inaugural Singapore-Selangor Schools Challenge Cup in The Sultan of Selangor’s Cup 2017 after defeating the Selangor Combined School 3-2 on penalties at the National Stadium, Singapore Sports Hub on Saturday afternoon.

After the match had ended 1-1 in regulation time, Nur Adam Abdullah kept his cool to slot home the winning spotkick to fire Singapore Sports School to victory.

In a match of 25 minutes of two halves, the home side dominated proceedings and should have built a healthy lead but Haryhs Stewart, Abdul Rasaq and Ashley Yong were all unable to find the target.

Instead, it was the visitors who opened the scoring on 17 minutes when Faris Kamardin cut inside Nur Adam to rifle a shot past Wilson Lim.

The boys from the Sports School rallied after falling behind and should have levelled matters five minutes later but Nur Adam’s firm header off a corner was well-saved by Zunnurain Nor Sham.

Ryan Marc Tan was next to come close for Shahrin Sharin’s side just before the break but saw his glancing header go wide of Zunnurain’s goal.

The Singapore Sports School equalised in the 31st minute when Sahffee Jubree tapped home past Zunnurain off Abdul Rasaq’s free-kick.

The scoreline remained intact until full-time as the match went into penalties to decide the winner with Singapore Sports School coming out on top.

In the traditional curtain-raiser, the Singapore Veterans and Selangor Veterans played out a goalless draw to share the honours in the second match of the evening.

P. Somasundram came close for Selangor Veterans after five minutes but his effort sailed just wide of the bar before Ho Kwang Hock’s weak header went straight into the arms Yap Kam Choon moments later.

Singapore Veterans threatened again in the 15th minute as Tay Peng Kee fired a shot that Yap was equal to.

The home side had arguably the best chance of the game on 25 minutes but substitute Steven Tan’s low shot beat Yap but not the post.

Karim Pin of Selangor Veterans flashed one wide of Rezal Hassan’s left-hand post four minutes later before Singapore Veterans’ Rafi Ali had his shot parried by Fahmi Isa in the 29th minute.

Dalis Supait then nearly nicked a late winner for Singapore Veterans but his header off Steven Tan’s freekick was too weak to trouble Fahmi as the two teams shared the spoils to be crowned joint winners for the sixth time.