Minimal Inference
Jovanovic Tops
Grilled hosted FC RaZer Infernus, already entrenched in fourth place, to The Cooking Pot and took a maiden win off them under bright sunshine. This season had seen upgrades in the forward department for the antagonists, with
Jan Langeland still searching for his breakthrough and S$16 million Finnish striker Heikki Leinonen in place of old hero Anders Anderhall for RaZer. It was not to be their story however, as the game's fate was settled by their secondaries. Milenko Jovanovic distanced himself from Team Singapore's Martin Stjerning, Winning Eleven's Nikos Avramidis and Herron's Gai Wai-Ming to claim sole ownersip of the coveted Golden Boot with his thirteeneth goal, and while Martinsson's late brace took him to eleven for the season only, he had the ultimate satisfaction as Grilled outduelled RaZer this time.
Grilled's performance was a throwback to the early part of the season where they had no fear of any team, and this was shown as they poured men forward in a show of confidence.
Jon Andrea Rottman made his second successive league appearance, as
Shen Kek-Tjiang's last-minute pullout left Grilled with only four on the bench for the first time in their history. RaZer remained composed, and almost scored against the run of play when Norwegian defender Terje Dahl picked out the top corner. Harlow did his job well, plucking that out of the air. Langeland's slaloming drive only increased the tension, but it all fell apart as he hastened to get his shot off and missed to his left.
RaZer had put out a weakened midfield, which further fell in efficiency when Shen Mun-Nee had to stop and be treated for dehydration midway into the second half. Grilled's superiority in the centre was countered by RaZer's solidity at the back and their ability to hold the ball up, and the match continued as a standstill. Suddenly, RaZer struck. Grilled had put the ball out for Langeland to have a cold spray for his twisted ankle. Siu-Yue horribly failed to control RaZer's return throw-in, and Leinonen was onto him in a flash. In the scrappy jostling that followed, Milenko Jovanovic gained possession and released a rocket with his left foot that Harlow didn't have a prayer at stopping.
This should have spelt the end for Grilled, but Martinsson set out to prove that he was still a force in open play. Less affected by the heat than most players, he was able to keep his head when a classy flick from
Aznan Noor Yadah found its way to him. Sidestepping the immediate challenge, he advanced and set his shot to Jiao-Long's left post. A minute later, he wrote a chapter in his growing legend as he took on RaZer's celebrated backline all by himself, finishing the match off with a pinpoint lob to the right post this time. Probably Grilled's player of the season, he deserved no less than the standing ovation that the again-hopeful Grilled supporters gave him after that.
