Terri Filic
Bonecruncher
Grilled travelled to Albania to play the first leg of their scheduled friendly series with F.C TERFILI, and returned with no goals and a lot of aching bodies as the Division Two strugglers kicked the Birds off the pitch in multiple ways, some of them not quite within the laws of the game.
TERFILI's flamboyant Greek striker Thanassis Geladakis wasted no time in pandering to the crowd, who lapped it all up despite the questionable effectiveness of his tricks. One of them worked out better than he had hoped, as he scammed Tuan-Mu into going flat on his back, but Geladakis then squandered the chance with a tame shot even as his teammates screamed for a pass.
Lenny Toft Nielsen was gesticulating a bit too intensely, in fact, and didn't notice as he swung his elbow out and caught
Kau Siu-Cheung square in the face. This off-the-ball incident was missed by all three match officials, and Kau had to be replaced by
Nor Suhaimi bin Che Lah after complaining of dizziness.
The hosts' Swedish defender Jimmy Månström came off second best in a chase with countryman
Ulf Hjortlind, and pulled up with a thigh strain after doing a split in an attempt to clear. Hjortlind was all over and nearly got a cheap goal after charging Seyed Khatib from behind, but Imbach stood his ground and saved with his feet.
Günter Bošek notched the opener after beating a rusty Nor Suhaimi on the dribble, but what entertained the crowd more was the full-blooded challenges that happened every minute or so. The next casualty was winger Benny Fridling, after butted heads with the seemingly indestructible Hjortlind, who strangely got booked for what looked like an accident.
Hjortlind soldiered on after getting his head bandaged up, but would see very little of the ball as TERFILI teased it around in their own half. After long periods of this, Australian attacking midfielder Marty Dean finally had enough of it and hefted a shot in the general direction of the Grilled goal, and appeared as surprised as Bao-Tam when it snuck in at the far post.
Khatib's intentional volley would have been impressive had it gone in, but sadly didn't dip enough, while Grilled put together a few decent counterattacks and were inches after
Lee Jie Siong scuffed his effort at the tail-end of a fifty-metre sprint.
Showman Thanassis Geladakis got a belated yellow card after getting his hands on just about any Grilled player that came within touching distance, but had the last laugh with an 83rd minute goal after Bukhari lost him completely in the build-up.
