To Be Young Again
With both Grilled Birds and Farmer Bunnies hunkering down for the last day before their cup final, it would be left to their U-20 sides to provide the talking points, and there would be no shortage of those from their friendlies today. The Chicken Wings were away in the Netherlands to play Sonor FC jeugdacademie at their Ambasador arena, and they eventually prevailed 3-1 on penalties after a 4-4 draw after extra time.
Josh Hwang missed the first take in a summary of his underwhelming youth career following strong initial hype, but Osman Mohd Alam wouldn't even have to do much as three of the Dutch boys sent their shots wide, leaving Lee Chu Han to win it. The hosts' Xander Born was a revelation at left wing in only his second start at the club before that, as he bagged a memorable hat-trick that required persistent counterattacks by the Wings to equal.
The Rancher Rabbits would also be abroad as they visited Brunei to challenge Busy Bees at the Hornet Hive, and it would be the Grilled International youngsters to prevail 5-4, again after extra time.
Pacy Rabbits forward Lim Chang Beng delighted his coaches with some shocking displays of acceleration to embarrass the Bees defence at times as he claimed his own treble, but the home side's Kirat Walvi wasn't far off with two cleanly-struck goals of his own. Siew Feng Dong then looked to have won it for the Rabbits from a scrappy 80th minute goal... but Azman bin Mohd rolled a penalty past the early-diving Liu Pin Boon four minutes on. Liu redeemed himself with a prescient save off Azman from another penalty strike to the same corner 95 minutes in, but he would be powerless to stop Zainul bin Naasiruddeen's finish as his teammates couldn't take it off him on the return ball.
Shamsul bin Salah, a local retiree who was one of the 57 interested onlookers at the Hive, praised the lads for their efforts. "It's great to see the boys enjoy themselves. Mind, if I were fifty years younger, I would give them a run for their money!"
