They will play no part in tomorrow’s final of the Lion City Cup (LCC) after losing to a Liverpool side a year younger than they are but, last night at the Jalan Besar Stadium, the Republic’s Under-16 side could well have written the first paragraph of a rather special story.
Three goals down at half-time and staring down the barrel of a resounding thumping, Ikhsan Fandi stepped up to a role his father played with distinction all those years ago in the inaugural LCC in 1977, and for various Singapore teams after.
The 16-year-old scored what in football parlance is known as the perfect hat-trick — one goal with the left foot, another with the right, and comleting his treble with a header — all in the space of just 11 second-half minutes to pull his team back on level terms.
Robin Chitrakar’s boys may have lost 5-3 on penalties, but this was no one-man team.
With the effervescent Saifullah Akbar, a dependable Elliot Ng in midfield, and a supporting cast that included Idraki Adnan and Alif Iskandar, Singapore could well be looking at a special generation of players.
Source: www.tnp.sg
