Cellai Too Good
Two Hurt
Lithuanian Division Two club Cell'ai proved overwhelmingly superior to Grilled's friendly selection despite using an unfamiliar 3-5-2, though Grilled could be said to have problems with their young hopefuls fitting in too. The large crowd was wonderful, though, and helped make the contest a lively affair.
Grilled's day was marred when
Mohd Firdaus bin Yaacob took a hard tumble after a legal tackle from Grohar, who sportingly kicked the ball out of touch when he saw the Singaporean not getting up. It turned out that Firdaus was indeed in pain, and in no condition to continue. Experienced Englishman
Tim Hobson was then thrown into the fray.
The hosts then shot off a first warning as striker Karsten Holm connected poorly with a fast cross just in front of goal, and even that was enough to force Bao-Tam into a full dive.
Lim Chuan Jing didn't help his goalkeeper any bit when he failed to check whether there was anyone behind him, but at least harried Holm enough to throw him off his shot.
Holm was third time lucky as Talib travelled too far from his post in closing down the ball, allowing the Danish forward free reign down the right. Faced with a couple of free targets in the middle, Holm ignored them all but justified his actions with a delightful lob over Bao-Tam.
Hjortlind did a number on the impressive Volkert Grohar after losing out on yet another aerial ball, though he argued that he had no idea the defender was there when he backed into the header. The normally poker-faced Grohar displayed the studs on his legs in answer, which appeared to sway the referee into fishing for his black book.
Cell'ai grew from strength to strength as the match wore on, and midfielder Leopoldo José Paéz dashed quickest to the loose ball after Bao-Tam had turned away a high cross awkwardly. Seng-Huat tried to catch up with the headed effort, but was well over the line when he managed to clear it.
Grilled did well in tightening things up at the back, and it looked as if two-nil would be the final score. They hadn't counted on the hosts upping the tempo with five minutes to go, though, and were caught with their pants down against a full-fledged attack at pace. Defender Marco Stuy got the best of his counterpart
Fabian Bona before finishing the third off.
Quah was given a courtesy run-out after
Lim Chuan Jing got his head in the way of an opponent's boot after stooping too low for a header. His first act was to release
Allan Ødegaard around the outside of the Cell'ai defence, but the Norwegian was charged off the ball by a quickly recovering Gracius Kaakauskas.
Rapolas Bironas was the victim of a misjudged stamp by
Nawaz Talib and had to spend injury time hobbling around, but Cell'ai still managed to add a fourth through the stamina of Volkert Grohar, who showed no sign of exhaustion as he outflanked the Grilled backline to collect a ball over the defence.
