Hooked By Crookshank
The Supporter Week Trophy saw Grilled Birds win three of their first four matches on Day One, with H.I. IV.19 winners Crab Hill Pirates FC seemingly exploiting the Birds' leaky defence to go 4-1 up in the opener, only to have five put past them afterwards. The Barbados side had neglected to pace themselves, and
Orest Tokarz grabbed a brace before being replaced by
Evandro La Face - who duly headed a corner home five minutes from time - in the 70th minute.
German VI.191 competitors Rot Weiß Trinken offered a lot less competition in being razed 7-1, with
Aw Keng Chuan and
Mohd Marzuki Khairul doubling up, and Colombian Martín Nestor Arrostito saving some blushes with a neatly-executed counter up the left. It was then the Birds' turn to get caught up, as they wasted
Gústav Thoroddsen's magic double within the first eight minutes, with it 3-2 by the 13th for Latvian II.2 club Blēžkājis, nicknamed the Crookshanks.
Orest Tokarz got a third back through some quick thinking in the 60th, but the Birds came no further.
The final fixture of the day would be against freshly-relegated Division Three side Hockey Club Luxembourg, who actually shredded the Birds' flat backline to ribbons in the first half through pure speed, only to be let down by careless finishing.
Joe Reece had no such bad habits as he knocked
Paulino Trindade's tasty 23rd minute cross down for the first, before adding a second right before half-time. Jérémie Bouffard responded soon after Aw's 50th minute strike, but Grilled prevailed 3-2.
Ones and zeroes were again the numbers for the day, for an increasing binary Farmer Bunnies, as they won two and drew one of their own fixtures. They would have to suffer a defeat to begin with, as Swiss V.87 side primofortes forced their way through with a remarkably mature attacking style for their age. 22 year-old Pole Edward Spera decided it in the 32nd minute, flashing past
Lim Guang Qiang to nutmeg
Gilberto Sorondo.
It was the
Prakash Bhujbal show for the next two games, as the 21 year-old youth international flaunted his undeniable quality, in keeping his nerve when it counted. Both GROUNDATION FC (French V.221) and Els Valdos (H.A.L Cape Verde VII.2863) could not resist the intensity he brought when the rest were flagging, with his 43rd minute off
Judah Cho's corner against Els Valdos the very picture of raw determination.
There would then be no winners when the Buns met Bolivian III.11 representatives DIEGO MARADONA FC, with
Vitaliy Efendiev skying a penalty in spectacular fashion 27 minutes in, not long after Cho flirted with a red card for intentionally barging into Botond Szász. Szász himself was no boy scout, though, as he took a clear dive and was also booked for it, and
Gilberto Sorondo would then block MARADONA's best chance of the game, which was Mustapha Bel Haj Ammar's free-kick flighted in from an acute angle.
Grilled International was neither here nor there as they split their four games, beginning with a 4-2 versus Zambian H.A.L VI.802 participants SC Scorpis, which had
Umut Koza and
Safari bin Hj Jali make the difference after Jackie Kashweka had equalized for a second time in the 49th. There would be no luxury of misses against former Spanish national champions and current III.11 side Eargasm, however, with Latvian Number Seventeen Mikhail Luzanov reaping a hat-trick, in a 5-0 wipeout.
Slovakian IV.40 team Breiðablik UBK would be the next to teach International a lesson, as they could not rely on
Chua Jun Long's individual brillance - and brace - to get a result here. Former Slovak U-20 midfielder Šimon Halbavý turned on the afterburners in the second half, with a late treble to make it 6-3. Romanian H.A.L Division Seven team FC Bizonu proved rather easier pickings, as they had only Claudiu Farcaş' consolation, in a 1-6 loss to International.
