Penalty goal puts Bullets in the quarter-finals

7th July 2015

In the final first round group match of the National Inter-Schools Football Competition at Lorong Napiri this afternoon, the junior Bullets laboured to a 1-1 draw against South Zone Champion Bartley Secondary School, thus qualifying for the quarter final group stage for the first time in the school's history.

Bullets starting line-up

The draw also meant that the Bowen Bullets have now gone 13 matches unbeaten this season, at least in normal time. However, the unbeaten run was severely threatened by Bartley Sec this afternoon as the Bullets put up a lethargic and error-strewn performance.

The fashion in which Bartley scored their goal in the 15th minute was typical of the way the match had panned out for the Bullets. A hopeful lob from a Bartley midfielder just inside the Bullets' half spent a long time in the air. And when the ball came down towards the Bullets' goal, goalkeeper Desmond Ong failed to deal with it, allowing the ball to drop behind him, bounce off the underside of the crossbar and into goal.

Bartley continued to bombard the Bullets, playing percentage football by blindly punting the ball forward whenever and wherever they could. Fortunately,it was a strategy that the Bullets saw through and managed to counter after the break. In the 2nd half, Bullets midfielders RSharveen and Mohd Shakir closed down their opponents quickly in the middle of the park,shutting out any opportunity Bartley had of putting the ball into the danger area.

Bullets right-back Tang Guan Yu taking a throw-in as team mate Aizal Murhamdani gets ready to receive

With that defensive assurance, the Bullets' attacking apex of Muhd Zamani, Aizal Murhamdani and Muhd Hisam began to wreak havoc in the Bartley half. In the 40th minute, Muhd Zamani got to the ball in the penalty box just in front of the Bartley leftback who inadvertendly bundled the Bowen skipper to the ground. The referee awarded the spot kick and Zamani converted it to set up an exciting fight to the end for a quarter-final place.

Muhd Hisam had a chance in the dying seconds from the last corner of the match to secure a win but his side-footed effort from close range went just wide. The eventual draw meant that Bowen progress to the next round while Bartley exit from the competition.

Bartley	1 – 1	Bowen
Goals Scored (Bowen only)
Muhd Zamani 40’ (pen)
Substitutions
Muhd Yusri for Tang Guan Yu 30’ Shah Sharizan for Muhd Fareez 30’