Ghinzu Whitewash
Mirchev Active
Grilled lost their fifth friendly on the trot, as they made the short trip down to Brunei to meet up with leading Division Two side, White Ghinzu. With the S-League race now into the final matchday, there were again nearly no risks taken with the first-teamers, who other than the non-matchfit
Hidde van Liere and
Fabian Bona were kept well away.
Ghinzu's homegrown captain Dhrupad Subramanian was clearly a crowd favourite as he led his team from the front, and even a poor first attempt that didn't trouble Cheung at all was passionately celebrated. Grilled once more held firm for the opening minutes, but soon Ghinzu's more schooled midfield overran the youngsters as van Liere displayed a lack of organizational abilities. The home fans were unhappy that Seng-Huat escaped with just a talking-to for a foul in the box after Signoriello was booked for something similar outside of it, but were content when their hero Subramanian buried the penalty kick past Cheung.
With some ill-feeling still lingering from that incident, Ghinzu's Swedish midfielder Lukas Jacobsso then put in an absolutely horrid tackle in on Mirchev well after the ball was played on. Mirchev thankfully avoided the worst of it at the last instance, and was on his feet again after a rubdown. He recovered quickly enough to steal the ball from Tay Wee Ze and clip it on to Penati, but the big-talking Italian youngster blew his shot embarassingly wide.
Grilled then lost it at the back, and gave local defender Mohd Sofi bin Burhan a free run that saw him nutmeg Cheung neatly to the delight of the home support. Winger Mohd Azmani bin Muhammad Fahmi then got a third for Ghinzu, before a knee to goalkeeper Teow Feng Jin's shin as bin Yaacob went for a runaway through pass saw Teow come off for 56 year-old Portugeuse coach Bruno Carmo.
Not that it mattered since Grilled hardly got the opportunity to test Carmo, with Cheung lucky to escape a fourth right after the interval after Lukas Jacobsson slammed a long range effort against the crossbar. This was unfortunately followed by a quick triple whammy as Zabidi, Guido and Tay tore through in the middle in succession, leaving Bona livid at his defence.
Finally, Subramanian returned to the limelight as he knocked in a seventh just a minute after wagging a finger at the referee to protest being booked for an untidy challenge on a panting Alcántara. Mirchev, who was one of the few Grilled players to remain clearly interested in the match at this point, was then cautioned in the 76th minute when he raged at the linesman when a corner was not given his way.
