Shingens Pipped
The Man Maikel
Grilled collected all three points from their first meeting with Shingen's Marauders thanks to a timely poach by Rotteveel, in a tight game where the visitors acquitted themselves respectably in defence.
Grilled were favoured against a Marauders side who have so far found the going tough in the top flight, not helped by a number of unfortunate injuries. They did have former national U-20 goalie Chua Puay Ming in their favour, though, and other than their midfield the Shingens were packed with S-League level quality.
They had also tasted victory against the team that never was last Sunday, but were understandably rather cautious in approaching this away match. The thin home crowd did not appreciate the lack of real action, with Sid's bending free-kick to Subri's head in the 25th minute the maiden effort. Chua wasn't troubled as the header spooned slightly wide even then.
The Marauders gave Grilled a real scare as they won a corner from some skilful play by American forward Leon Williams, who sped ahead of two defenders to force the ball out off one of them. Dreadful marking saw Renats Vecvanags arrive all by himself at the far post as the corner eluded Beckman's grasp, but thankfully Vecvanags stuck his leg out a fraction too late.
That turned out to be a blessing in disguise, as Beckman cleverly sought Grilled's van Liere on the right flank before Shingens had the chance to regroup. An ill-advised sliding challenge by Ignác Simek saw van Liere skip past him with a clear route to goal, and Rotteveel was as expected available to bundle the ball over the line with his strength.
In general, Grilled could not find a way to unlock the visitors' backline, and they in fact had the best opportunity of the game when several one-touch passes saw Vecvanags free with only Beckman to beat. That really should have been converted by the Latvian, but Beckman threw him off sufficiently for the final touch to hit the crossbar.
Grilled suffered from a similar lack of imagination in the second half, but they survived a thumping kick from Qing Chem-Tov that swerved precariously close to the edge of their goal. Fortunately, the Marauders did not exactly have many chances of their own, and in the end Rotteveel's goal was good value for the win.
