Blues Again
Local Test
Grilled Birds hosted BlueNite at The Cooking Pot, the first time in months that the club had accepted the invitation of a local team. Fellow Division Two team BlueNite arrayed themselves in a blatantly counterattacking poise, placing their sole foreigner, Rafael Álvarez De Miranda D, up front. Grilled too switched to a more cautious formation, with
Joe Stern playing as lone striker. From the start, the Three As of Grilled, Aznan, Asher and Au-Yong, took the midfield under their thumb.
Milen Kolesov put out an appeal for more games with a slide-rule pass to Au-Yong in the 9th minute for Au-Yong to tap it past Hu Tung. BlueNite's captain Jiang Joon got booked for a hard tackle on Stern, conceding a free kick. Stern bent one into the heavily populated BlueNite box, where it fell to
Tim Blissenbach who shifted in from the side. The German lad's powerful shot struck the near post, but the rebound went to
Joe Stern who kept a cool head to retain control and convert. The third goal came when
Asher Stanton punted a rather mundane ball up, where Au-Yong showed a maturity beyond his age to stand his ground and head it in. Grilled retreated to their half after that.
BlueNite looked discomfitted in the 5-4-1 system, but appeared to have adapted in the second half where they were the better team for some periods. Stern drew another booking when he provoked sweeper Geng Syn-Tek into lunging at him, and nearly added insult to injury when he reeled off a stinger which brushed the crossbar with Hu Tung in no position to save. The second half ended with no other eventful moments, and Grilled ran out 3-0 winners this time.
