Corsairs Raided
Firdaus Four
23 year-old reserve striker
Mohd Firdaus bin Yaacob dismissed semi-professional side West Corsairs with his first professional hat-trick, then added one more towards the end to pad his tally.
Maikel Rotteveel was his customary lethal self, but couldn't overshadow Firdaus as he had to be satisfied with a brace.
With the midfield containing only a spent-looking
Dani Spirig, who had apparently not fully recovered from his exertions against Rollin' Thunder, as the lone regular, the pumped-up Corsairs actually managed to claim a good chunk of the early possession. Firdaus crashed in a
Sándor Deme cross to get Grilled ahead, but forty-something Corsairs winger Qu Ai-Ping expressed himself brilliantly against a sullen Penati at fullback, and could have taught the proud Italian lad a lesson or two.
Rotteveel was denied a certain-looking goal by a goalmouth clearance, but the game itself was soon beyond doubt, with
Tapesh Chowdhury swinging in a low cross that Firdaus skilfully volleyed beyond the reach of Zhou Yee-Ming. Deme got another assist as Firdaus took his shot early and successfully again, but the Polish wide man then got himself into foul trouble by sticking out his leg late.
Rotteveel would not miss a second time as Firdaus turned provider, helped by the fact that the defence were by now fixtated on the hat-trick hero rather than the reigning S-League top scorer. This happened again in the 56th minute as Firdaus found just the right angle to play Rotteveel through, so well that the Dutchman didn't need to summon any special effort to brush off the chasing defenders and clip it over the goalie.
Fjällbratt got cautioned for deliberately kicking the ball away after being denied a clear goalscoring chance by the offside flag, and then Deme got close to being sent off when he collided with defender Lin Sai-Kwong, leading to the 46 year-old self-employed businessman being carried off with a mild concussion. The referee put it down as unintentional, fortunately for Deme, and the game continued with Mohd Hafizi bin Jaafar being substituted on.
Mohd Firdaus bin Yaacob then rounded off what was the best match of his career so far, as he went airborne with surpreme confidence to hook in a spectacular goal with an overhead kick.
