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Sweet Yet Sour Toa Payoh Stadium

Many motorists would be forgiven if that unassuming small stadium located next to the huge SAFRA clubhouse failed to grab their attention when they drove past it after entering Toa Payoh from the westbound Pan Island Expressway (PIE). OFTEN FORGOTTEN OBSCURITY After all, the awkward positioning of that above-mentioned brutalist arena along the busy Lorong 6 stretch does no favour to help any random visitor to have a clear visible sight of it when there is a car park in front of it. The brutalist facade of Toa Payoh Stadium Nonetheless, the 3,800-capacity Toa Payoh Stadium has a special place in local sporting folklore for being part of the then newly erected Toa Payoh Sports Complex which served as a venue for competition and training of the 1973 SEAP Games - the first major sporting event hosted by the then newly-independent Republic of Singapore. PELE VISITED TOA PAYOH STADIUM IN 1974 It was also this stadium that etched its presence in Singapore football when the legendary Pele c...

Preserving The Legacy of Those Who Toiled For Singapore Football

People of my generation might have heard of him but were too young to realize who he was when he was playing. Let alone those millennials or Generation Z who might think "Mat Noh" is just a random name of someone around them. It is something we cannot pinpoint at anyone if many young people these days have not heard the names of Mat Noh and his contemporaries who wowed this island republic in the 1970s. The 1977 Singapore National Team is still revered by many to this day ** Simply because many former players have stayed out of the media limelight after they hung up their boots that it is no surprise, some might not realize who are they if they happened to stand in front or next to a former national player. SAD THAT ONLY REALIZED WHO THEY WERE WHEN THEY GONE It is a sad thing that whenever former star players like Mat Noh pass on, we only get to read articles in the newspapers and discussions on social media reminiscing the achievements they had in their heydays, other than...

[Telegram Chat] - DON'T WAIT TILL THEY ARE GONE ...

I believe those in their fifties and above would know who Mat Noh (Mohd Noh bin Hussain) was. Nicknamed "Allan Clarke" of local football, the good-looking striker was a heartthrob to many ladies fans and wowed many with his dazzling skills on the field during his heydays in the 1970s when starring for the national team in their Malaysia Cup exploits that ignited the "Kallang Roar" era. Mat Noh passed away at the age of 67 But how many who were born in the 1980s actually know him or his contemporaries and those who were born in the late 1970s might be too young to know who they were until they read about them in newspapers, etc.? And because of such ignorance, it led to one unsavoury incident that triggered one uproar that a late former national player was not properly accoladed on the night when he should at the closing ceremony of the old National Stadium (I shall not dwell on this incident, just go and Google it, as it still left a bitter taste on my tongue whenev...

[REPOST] The Day A Girl Sobbed For The Lions in March 1977

Instead of clamouring for those good old days, I always believe one shall never dwell on things that were already long gone. Yet, the irony is we still need those past glories to inspire the newer generations to push the boundaries to do better than their predecessors. Mat Noh embraced Uncle Choo after beat Malaysia 1-0 (New Nation) PRE-WORLD CUP QUALIFIERS (ASIA ZONE GROUP ONE) IN SINGAPORE It was a time when Singapore, the host, were ranked outsiders in this tournament which featured regional powerhouses like Hong Kong, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia as well. How would one expect the Lions to do well against a technically superior Malaysia team who still boasted the likes of “Spiderman” R Arumugam, “Towkay” Soh Chin Aun, Santokh Singh, Wong Choon Wah, James Wong, etc. in the absence of the legendary Mokhtar Dahari who was injured? Yet a hotly-disputed penalty which was converted by Mat Noh (who was tasked by coach "Uncle" Choo Seng Quee to train on penal...

That special kind of magic...

"Singapore-Selangor" was a crowd-puller ** The unique football rivalry between Singapore and Selangor can only be appreciated by those who have lived through that era. This rivalry is unique in the sense that it is not caused by different social classes (as in Argentina's elite-based River Plate and working-class linked Boca Juniors) or close-town rivalries like AC Milan and Inter. Instead, it was likened to the rivalry between Manchester United and Liverpool. Despite languishing in the lower tier of the Malaysian League back in 1993, both Singapore and Selangor entertained a packed National Stadium in a second-division clash. To this day, some of us are still savouring those nostalgic moments of the swinging 1970s when the likes of Quah Kim Song, Samad Allapitchay, and Dollah Kassim were up against some of the best players in Asia those days, namely Mokhtar Dahari, Soh Chin Aun, and Santokh Singh who were playing for both Malaysia and Selangor. "SINGAPORE VS MALAYSI...