Never Stall Birds
Lewing Levels
TTTNW threw a spanner into the works as they again denied Grilled maximum points, this time by grabbing a late draw in from of an intensely disappointed home crowd. Despite this, the dynamics of the title race remain largely unchanged, as all things still point to a titanic final showdown at The Cooking Pot in a fortnight.
There were few surprises from either side, though Grilled appeared to give their opponents a fair bit of respect, which was not unreasonable given their fine recent form which saw them defeat Rollin' and Arrogancae in succession. Another factor was the speed of TTTNW's signature forays down the wings, which contributed much to Grilled's loss the last time the two met.
The first true chance was half an hour in the coming, as the previously under-the-weather Edmond broke free from his shackles and dashed past Miguel Moniz.
Quah Han Kok moved quickly to take up prime position, and looked set to convert when the cross zoomed in, only for Kalle Riis to intercept with a mighty punch before the ball reached him.
Grilled regained possession and regrouped, and
Nawaz Talib stepped up to give Grilled the lead when he strode unchecked into the penalty area and deposited Branbilla's short lob over the top into the bottom right corner with his instep.
That was soon cancelled out, however, as TTTNW's Spanish winger Ángel Ferrer made his way down Grilled's weaker left wing and dumped an early cross in behind the high defensive line.
Han Lik-Tsun chased it down, but was a step too slow as Li Chun-fai headed it down and slotted it just past Valdir in a single movement.
The first half had been roughly evenly matched, and Grilled finally began coming out of their shell in the second period as the fans got into voice.
Subri bin Ku Zainol gave them more incentive by skilfully cutting past the opposition centrebacks from an unpromising location, then breaching the bottom right corner for the second time in the game.
A win looked in the bag after
Maikel Rotteveel displayed trememdous pace and balance to speed past Xi Quoc-Sung two minutes later and hammer a third past Riis, but this might have come too early on hindsight. The urgency seeped out of Grilled's play, and after they were continually being forced on the defensive, a goal by TTTNW looked more likely than not.
The Grilled defence held firm until the 81st minute, when superstar striker Yusman bin Salim put his head to a tasty rising cross from Ferrer down the left. It was Yusman's first real bite all game, but quality shone through in the end as his well-placed header proved impossible for Valdir to get to in time.
Another shock was to come before the visibly furious Liehner managed to have a word with his men before the kickoff - a sloppy second pass by Han Kok was seized upon by Nilsson, and a dozen passes later Erik Lewing got the ball into Grilled's net again, as a shamefully unprepared defence was taken apart by the width of their attacks.
This time, Liehner called all of the Grilled players over for a sound talking-to, but it was too late to grab a late winner.
