Dolphins All At Sea
Four Score Five
Fed up with two friendly losses in a row, Grilled Birds came out with all guns blazing against the semi-professional Division Five team City Dolphins at their cosy City Field stadium. The atmosphere onfield was anything but cuddly as Grilled was geared towards gathering confidence for the coming season. Hobson and Reed made an appearance as Chiew-Yen and Stern were saved for the season opener against Chinablack, and although relegated to the second team they showed unsurpassed hunger. Hobson fittingly got Grilled's first of the season as he cut through Yu-Pang like he wasn't there, before unleashing a trademark cannonball. City Dolphins bounced back, and kept their goal intact for much of the remainder of the half. The few thousand home fans screamed for Seng-Huat to be carded when he appeared to have taken down winger bin Yusoff, but the referee had other ideas and wrote bin Yusoff's name down instead. Yusoff was still heckling the man in black when Åhsten legally recieved the resultant free kick and went around Tze-Yueng to sneak in a second. The Dolphins realised their prediacment too late. Deng Tze-Yeung nearly repaid his club when he did a blitzkrieg on the Grilled goal, but Huel-sheng's leap turned out to be unnecessary as the ball soared into the galleries. City Dolphins were chronically slow to regroup after major attacks, and they suffered for it when out-of-favour
Miguel Reed advanced with Åhsten into their penalty area unhindered. Reed looked around as if to pass, but finding no support finished it himself. Wu Aik-Hau, who had an admirable game limiting Grilled to just one goal until the last few minutes, then got substituted as he turned his knee due to poor conditioning.
City Dolphins played positively despite the scoreline, with the enjoyment that comes with not being expected to win. Some of their players were on par with Grilled's men as they ran with exuberance, but that alone could not prevent
Chai Yew-Hoe from taking the fourth and fifth goals on the 65th and 72nd minutes. Grilled reserve goalie
Cheung Huel-sheng nearly had to be carried off after midfield Wang Wen-shan ran hard into him, but in the end he felt well enough to continue. A few cards were flashed on both sides as the Dolphins went aggressively in search of a goal for their supporters, but it was Grilled Birds who could have made it seven-nothing had not Hobson and Alcántara missed good chances towards the end.
