Trick No Treat
Olsson Overwhelms
Despite not scoring this time, Swedish midfielder Michael Olsson eclipsed his Oceanian partner Dawson and manufactured a 2-1 win, letting Hattrick all the time overhaul Grilled Birds in the league standings.
Grilled were shaky and did not withstand HaTT's initial probe, as right winger Sten Rosblom rounded
Johan Dewilde with disparaging ease. Neither he nor Tuan-Mu could summon a burst of pace to match the flying Swede, and Rosblom unleashed a scorcher within seconds. Harlow had to pick the ball out from the back of the net with only three minutes on the clock.
Olsson made no mistakes as he roamed freely at the head of the Grilled half, as he set up Lars Pilholt off a redirected pass. Pilholt had Tuan-Mu and Alcántara near him, but he drove them off with direct running and trickled a goal in. That was a soft let-in by Harlow, who however did magnificiently when he flung out an arm to deny Pilholt a second on the half-hour mark, after Lennartsson had stolen possession off Kek-Tjiang.
HaTT were in their element as they kept Grilled locked down in defence, and deserved a couple more goals for their persistence; these never came, as Lennartsson's pace petered out in the relentless rain. Local ex-junior international Si Tein-min found the left post with his volley, and Harlow recovered quickly to push Olsson's follow-up header up over the crossbar. The corner was cleared fast to Martinsson, who was caught on the heels by Chetas Menon when shielding the ball.
Martinsson lined up his fourth penalty in three league games, and maintained his hundred percent reputation with a no-nonsense grounder hit hard to Abdul bin Mustaffa's left. Ever the patron saint of lost causes, Hjortlind cranked up the juice and began applying the full-field press on HaTT's defenders. Finding no glaring errors, he wagered on a surprise sliding tackle on Tein-min that ended with a yellow card. HaTT fired a parting shot at Grilled through the boots of Hans Kyhlbom, but Harlow was attentive and bundled that up pronto.
