Running Up
Beaten cup finalists and second in the S-League was about as good a Singaporean club could come without winning honours, but this was of little consolation to the players, some of whom appeared dazed after the final whistle was sounded. Serpin would go about comforting them as well as he could, as the Fringeheads staff bustled about to set up the platform for the trophy presentation.
"It hurts, but I'm proud of the lads still." the Grilled head coach declared. "We pushed the initiative today, and on another day, had we taken the lead, it could have been an entirely different story. But congratulations to Sarcastic Fringeheads, they did what they had to, and we would have done the same."
Serpin made a special mention for
Wu Jinglong too. "It took great mental fortitude for him to perform under these circumstances, and before his injury, he had been one of our better players. He has been a dream to work with, and deserves better."
In better news, the Farmer Bunnies confirmed their promotion from III.2 with a 3-1 away win against Guru United, which had
Billy Camperio,
Nurlan Ablaev and
Djoko Tambusai score for them. The home team got one back off a corner through Gao Cunfang, but would have finished third in any case, with Kang Kong thrashing 10G3NT 7-0.
10G3NT would thus be relegated together with Dream Seals, who finished the season on zero points after their 1-6 downer to The Red Bomb - who in turn escaped by the skin of their teeth. Elsewhere, Pegasus SC secured fourth place and safety by defeating Sim(TM) 2-1, in a bad-tempered clash that saw Eman Shafeeq stretchered off in a brutal injury-time collision, and teammate Yannick Rambach sent off for his retaliation.
Team captain
Tham Leng Teck enjoyed his sixth league title with the Bunnies, but at 36 years old, the club legend has accepted that it will be a new generation who will be taking the torch forward. "I'm hoping this isn't my last trophy with the club, but if it is, there are no regrets."
