Wandering Woodlands
Rain Joy
The Birds were rampant at a mostly-empty St Remy's Punishers Park as a rainstorm warded off less fanatic supporters. A pity for Grilled supporters, as the team rode on a potent mixture of luck and skill to cruise to its most comprehensive victory in Division Two ever. Woodlands Punishers, as is their custom, sat back to absorb attacks and respond with counters, but where it came off brilliantly against Shadow Chaser FC a week ago, it didn't this time. Their central defensive duo of tall Indonesian Komang Surani and Rolf Persson were in good form, but
Wilson Kearney sailed over the crowd to convert
Johan Dewilde's corner kick in minutes. Woodlands survived a scare when
Ulf Hjortlind struck the woodwork, and then came back with striker Wang Xiao-Shuang on the break, with
Lan Tuan-Mu left floundering behind him. Kearney recaptured the lead for Grilled as Noor Yadah squared for him to use his head to maximum effect, and then Grilled had the spectators openmouthed with three goals in two minutes. Hjortlind first leaped onto a bit of careless play to widen the lead, and then first-time league starter
Tim Blissenbach, a last-minute tactical replacement for usual left inner midfielder
Shen Kek-Tjiang, justified the decision with pace and verve as he burst through the scattered Woodlands defense to finish off with a light touch. As if that was not enough, Grilled made it up to 1-5 when
Johan Dewilde punted a free kick into Woodlands' four man defensive wall, for it to trickle though and past a wrongfooted Gao Kwang-lu. The Punishers' keeper must have felt it was just not his day.
The downpour intensified in the second half, and the only guy who looked at home in such conditions was
Zhan Ju-Hau, who was all over the field. He made Grilled's sixth as he cut through several white-and-black clad Punishers players with his muscle, giving it to the lethal Hjortlind to score. The Grilled coach got mad when Punishers' Romanian midfielder Laurentiu Vlãdoiu, a S$3 million transfer and a real presence on the field, took just-recovered winger
Aznan Noor Yadah down at his knees. The fast lad was only shaken, thankfully. Grilled added one more in the 81st minute when
Daniel Tellskär played a diagonal ball to Hjortlind, who recorded his third hattrick in four games with a tap-in.
Aznan Noor Yadah kept at it on the left flank, but his lack of fitness showed as he blundered the ball away to Serbian defender Jovan Vasilic, and the scripted counterattack put a hole in a complacent Grilled side.
Nui Pakpao's saving tackle was a temporary reprive as young right winger Xu Kam-Kee scored beautifully from the free-kick awarded.
Wilson Kearney went for his own triple with a stinging volley which knocked the burger out of an unlucky fan's hands in the stands, though by then the game was long cut and dried.
