RaZer Niners
Streak Continues
Grilled's astounding record against FC RaZer Infernus was extended with a ninth straight victory in all competitions, a hundred-percent success rate against the auld enemy for seven seasons. The latest win was hardly a fluke either, as Grilled netted four times to match the corresponding fixture in the previous season.
Meetings between the two clubs have long been special, and despite Grilled having the upper hand for some time now, RaZer supports will point out that the biggest winning margin in this series still belongs to RaZer. If they had hoped that this time would prove an exception, they would be swiftly disappointed as Sid notched the S-League's first goal this season with just three minutes on the clock.
Sid's uncharacteristic favouring of strength over placement caught Mak Jiao-Long unprepared and made the Grilled fans very happy, but Grilled soon were reminded that this fixture has always been a tough battle, no matter the final score. Old-timer Wang Wee-Hwa might have pulled one back from Weng Shen's flat corner, but it rose just over with Sulaiman beaten.
Grilled were of course not content to tamely yield the initiative, and some strong running by their midfielders opened up a line of fire for
Maikel Rotteveel. The Dutchman didn't hesitate to pull the trigger from the head of the box, and was oh-so-close to burying it in the top left corner for a spectacular goal.
The anticipated roughhouse play arrived in the 30th minute, when Wang didn't pull out of a late challenge on the sprinting
Hidde van Liere. That didn't stop van Liere and the referee had to wait till he ran the ball out of play to pull out his card, but ironically van Liere got an unintentional elbow in the face in the very next play and had to leave with a nosebleed.
Games with RaZer are hardly the best ones to ease in youngsters, but
Peter Fjällbratt filled in surprisingly well for van Liere, probably helped by having sufficient maturity to not pretend he is in fact the great man.
New signing
John MacKinnon endeared himself to the home support with a fearless leaping header in the face of several RaZer defenders, and he might in fact have scored had it not been for the alert Mak. By this point in the game, the visitors were being hemmed back, and Grilled were slowly but surely gaining confidence.
A one goal lead was hardly going to be enough to calm the supporters, and thus it was with great joy that they watched Subri tuck home a loose ball in the box to double the lead. Subri wasn't done yet, and quickly got his second as he leaped far enough to disrupt Peter Patel's attempt at a backheader. Finishing with a clear path to goal wasn't too hard for the energetic forward.
The final goal came from a rather unlikely source, as
Nawaz Talib cut in swiftly from the right and actually danced around the last man with quick feet that would be the pride of most strikers. The shot wasn't half bad either, although Jiao-Long might have done better to keep on his line instead of rushing out towards a hopeless cause.
