Qiaonan - Youth team starlet Ryan Low made his first team debut in Myjia's 4-0 away victory over arch rivals Impulse East on Saturday afternoon.
The match was close to being abandoned before a last minute decision was made to play on the muddy Qiaonan pitch, homeground of Impulse East FC.
Much words has been exchanged between both sets of player before the match and a plea for calm heads hours before the match just about managed to settle any animosity coming into the match.
It was Impulse East who started first and credits to them for showing no fear against an experienced Myjia side. Both sides were evenly matched, pass for pass, tackle for tackle though it always looked more likely that Myjia will open the scoring.
Ace striker Chia Junhao was a constant menace to the Impulse defence and indeed it was through him that Myjia opened the floodgates. A piercing through pass by Delvin, playing in centre midfield, released Junhao down the middle for a one-on-one with former Myjia loanee Ben Lim. Junhao's initial flick was parried by Ben before it rebounded back off the striker and into the goal to give Myjia the important lead.
That was to be a start of an avalanche of goals from Myjia in an half hour spree.
First, striker Ronnie Low collected a pass in the centre and neatly spurned around his marker to place a perfect shot into the bottom corner as it squeezed past the keeper. A perfect way to mark his return back to the side after a lengthy absence on the sidelines. 2-0 to Myjia and there was more to come.
Several dubious decisions from the referee were beginning to irritate the Myjia players at this stage and after a late tackle on midfielder Wai Meng went unpunished, tempers briefly flared before the referee flashed a yellow card at Delvin for retaliation.
It was however, Myjia who had the last laugh as they added another goal minutes later thru Wai Meng. A freekick was awarded just outside the Impulse penalty box and after a false-start by Ebenzer Low, Wai Meng took the kick and sent the ball to the near post which left the keeper grasping for thin air.
The scoreline soon read 4-0 when Delvin played a one-two with Ronnie which totally caught the opponent defence by surprise. Clean through on goal, there was no way Delvin could miss as he slammed the ball into the net.
The writing was on the wall for Impulse by half time and credits to them, they picked themselves up and took the game to Myjia in the second half.
Team manager Vincent Low changed the personnel around and Junhao replaced Raymond in goal with the regular keeper in an unfamiliar position up front.
The change was evident as Impulse got a better grip of the game and began counter-attacking to good effect. Myjia though had their chances too with Ebenzer missing the best chance of the second half when a deflected ball put him clean through only for the youngster to miss the target.
The nearest Impulse came to scoring came in the 80th minute courtesy of a counter attack down the left. Myjia defence was left chasing the speedy Impulse strikers and only good covering and a dogged determination by Wilson Tan and Wilkin Tan prevented Impulse from scoring. Wilkin in particular made up for a below average performance when he sprinted back from the half way line and executed a last ditch tackle to dispossess the attacker.
By this time, the starlet of Myjia youth team Ryan Low had already replaced his uncle Ronnie Low and his debut makes him the youngest player to play for Myjia at 12 years of age.
Displaying good touches albeit still lacking in positional play and off the ball running, Ryan Low showed enough promise in his 20 minutes on the pitch to suggest he could soon feature regularly in the first team.
In the end, Myjia ran out 4-0 winners after a goalless second half to notch their second consecutive win of the season.
