Chiang Rai Close
Alexe Absentee
Micrea Alexe, appearing for the first time for Grilled, nevertheless was hardly noticed on the wing as Grilled kept ahead of Thailand's Chiang Rai Ranger on two first half goals from Tellskär and Seng-Huat. The Division Three side was chock-ful of Northern and Eastern European players, sporting a wholly imported team other than the all-local midfield.
Chiang Rai's trump card Mongkut Tukata was shackled by an early yellow card, all the more pity for him as he electrified all viewers with a move bordering on genius in the very first minute. Ananada's hard running had the overwhelmingly offence-minded Grilled minfield in knots, but they countered by denying the ball to the opposition. Tellskär wrapped up the team's first chance with aplomb, which should somewhat compensate him for being left out of the championship-securing victory against Woodlands Punishers on Sunday.
Chiang Rai tried to come back from the restart but were left in sixes and sevens as their initial attack petered out. Grilled too were poor at seizing the initiative, but bagged another goal through rightback
Weng Seng-Huat, who outdid himself with a fortuitous wild volley that found its way past Danish keeper Jørgen Glad via a heavy deflection off Knutsen.
From the restart,
Zhan Ju-Hau should really have put Grilled three-nil up when
Aznan Noor Yadah hogged the right wing and supplied a set of fine passes to the middle. One of them saw Ju-Hau free just metres from the goal, but he inexplicably opted for finesse over force and attempted a cheeky slice over Glad. Glad was not about to be beaten by another volley though and protected the goalmouth with a solid punch to put the ball behind for a corner.
Grilled's
Nor Suhaimi bin Che Lah headed badly from that, but Chiang Rai's Swede forward Alin Mândruleanu was incensed at what he thought was shift-pulling by the young defender and gave him a heated talking-to. The referee was having none of that and wisely showed the yellow card to Mândruleanu.
Grilled barely retained their grip on the game as Tukuta rediscovered his touch, and during one of the periods of frantic activity in the game Grilled striker
Chen Chiew-Yen got his feet in a tangle while helping out in defence. What looked like a slight knock turned out to be relatively serious as Chen had to hop off, grimacing in pain. Longtime partner
Tim Hobson replaced him, but did not manage to stamp his authority on the game as he and
Joe Stern kept misreading each others' intentions.
Hansa became the victim of Hobson's pent-up energies as he was felled heavily by the Englishman, but neither lost out as Hansa recovered almost immediately and the referee's back was turned. The remainder of the game belonged to Chiang Rai Ranger as they besieged Öhmo's goal for prolonged periods, but they only managed to pull one back in the 71st minute when flank-to-flank action between winger Pichai and striker Pettersson resulted in the latter nodding home, and the Birds left Narisara Arena with the win.
