BoLASEPaKO.COM - A Blog on Singapore Football

As the final whistle blew to call the end of the 2005 Singapore Cup final, Singapore football bid farewell to probably one of the finest coach that graced the land. Steve Darby - Love him or Hate him, let us not forget those colourful moments he shared with us. Known for his outspokenness that had restored a bit of vibrancy into the scene since the mellow down of R Vengadasalam, the former Rams manager (now at Tampines Rovers) However it was also his outspokenness that landed him into some troubles with the league authority, which were well-documented. (eg: his comment on the mandatory Beep test) Despite those negative issues, one must not forget he had restored the pride of the Protectors, that was badly bruised after the departure of Dutchman Roberts Alberts, who was succeed by Englishman Jason Withe, before Darby stepped in to replace Withe. Personally, I must say thanks to coach Darby for "introduce" me to the "real world of that of a journalist", after a match ...

(Unless I'm pretty sure of the topic I'm going to pen, if not I will place a "?" at the back of the headline) At the stroke of full time, the beleaguered (for this season) Home Utd salvaged their bruised pride and snatched the Singapore Cup, after came from behind to beat the star-studded Woodlands Wellington, who is still searching for their first piece of silverware since the start of the League. Indra Sahdan Daud saved the day for the 12000 fans (and the media folks, pictured on the left) at Kallang by netted home the winning goal on the 93rd minute. Sad to say, this victory marked the end of the career of Thai midfielder J Surachai and the departing of Lion's skipper Aide Iskandar and coach Steven Darby from the Bishan stadium. While Man of the Match Indra refused to elaborate his next move, despite of the speculation surrounded him, during the post-match press conference.

This coming Sunday will feature two of the cream of the crop of the local football. As coach Steve Darby will lead his charge out of the tunnel for the last hurray against the underachievers Woodlands Wellington, let's hope it will be a spectacular matcha one will never forget. Yes, it has been long season especially for the likes of Indra, Aide, Subramani, Bennette, Tat Chuan and etc, who been playing almost non-stop since last season. Definitely, the fatigueness is there.. But as the stage is set at the "Grand Old Lady" - the National Stadium. The same venue where the Lions lifted the Tiger Cup. Surely, the fans aren't gonna given a sloppy game for the setting of that of a Cup Final. Lionel Lewis should remember that day, when he picked the ball out of the goal eight times years back, when he played for Geylang Utd in one of those Cup Final .

(Picture on the left, M C of the night Bernand Lim warming up the audience prior the start of the night.) Was one of the privileged few to attend this gala event, which was held at the Mediacorp TV Theater. Noh Alam Shah was named the "Player of the Year", while his striking partner Mirko Grabovac took the top scorer award as well as the "Player of the Decade" award. Pin-up boy Issey Nakajima of Albirex Niigata wrapped up the "Young Player of the Year" award. Pretty innovative in the way the organiser announced the list of nominees, especially, the "Coach of the Year" awards, which drew laughter from the house. In which, the five nominees (Ie: Young Lions' Fandi Ahmad, Albirex's Ichiro Otsuka, SAFFC's Ki m Poulsen, Woodland's Karim Bencherifa and eventual winner Tampines' Vorawan Chitavanich) were being portrayed as a group of school kids in a classroom und er the mercy of the "teacher" (pictured on the right)...