Jaguars Jumped
Winners All
Grilled racked up their largest friendly win in twelve seasons by making it 10-0 against Bangladeshi visitors The Jaguars at The Cooking Pot, with the likes of Ulf Hjortlind and Hidde van Liere opening the scoring the last time they did it, against Bahraini side SV Juffair Manama. This 150th friendly win saw several players making their first appearances for the club, with
Krishnan Adabala and
Neo Da Teck burnishing their debuts with goals.
Adabala and fellow Indian colleague
Mayur Gudivada were entrusted with midfield posts, with plenty of support from veteran players Back, Lefébure and Josefsson. It was
Tian Yonghang's star that shone the brightest, however, as the deceptively graceful forward put his horrible tackle at the weekend behind him with a delightful lob over Italian goalie Antonio Tagani in the seventh minute.
This was followed by another goal in the fifteenth minute for the form striker, and it was apparent that The Jaguars had brought a weakened squad. That did not cause Grilled's hungry younglings to let up, and
Li Boon Boon was a model of consistency as he got stuck in to get a third, while
Rosendo Chinchay made his case for more league starts, galloping from defence to grab a fourth ten minutes before the break.
Wardi Azhari and
Neo Da Teck got into the game for the second half, and again it was Tian who stole the limelight with a hat-trick barely three minutes in, making his way through the disorganized Jaguars defence with the ease of an old head. It was indeed an old head who kept the tap running, as
Anders Josefsson capitalized on a blunder by Tagani off a corner kick to record a rather cheap sixth.
It was then the turn of the new boys to stamp their authority on the game, with Neo enjoying himself by acting as a temporary winger, shorn of possible recriminations by the visitors' generally non-existent threat due to lack of possession. He was visibly overjoyed at unexpectedly joining the club of debut scorers in the 62nd minute, before Adabala ran true to his reputation of being a late bloomer by chipping in with a brace before the 70th minute.
There were expectations of a historic scoreline as Grilled continued distributing the ball with extreme confidence, but alas there would be only one more, a
Fan Xiuyu header from an
Erik Back delivery.