Lifted To Third
Mac The Knife
Grilled's quest for points continued unabated as they carved out a useful 1-0 away win against struggling L1verpool, who have been hard battlers all season, but have also consistently come up just short.
The rain arguably hindered Grilled more than the hosts, though, as Rotteveel and Sid were little more than damp fuses and looked miserable to be soaked and slowed. Rotteveel's unhappiness was clearest when Penati played him right through in the early minutes - or would have had the Dutchman not lost his footing when he tried to accelerate, and slipped once more while trying to get up.
L1verpool legend Zou Yom-Keh was in contrast the embodiment of endeavour, and he came very close to adding to his 183 career goals, split between Polish side Zielono Bialo Czerwoni and his current club, when he got a leg to Tomás Elordui's interesting cross coming from the right. Valdir simply watched as Zou stabbed it inches wide from a few metres out.
Grilled held on grimly as L1verpool did the attacking, and their outlook became even less rosy after
Nawaz Talib hopped off the field in pain. A couple of minutes earlier, Gao Chor-Wai was carded for taking a hefty swing at his shin. There was some hesitation in who to replace him with and if a reshuffle should be made, but in the end
Dani Spirig simply stepped in at leftback.
Subri seemed to have got in behind the L1verpool central defense after a surprise ball played long by Lik-Tsun, but to the Malaysian forward's horror, his neat goal was disallowed and he was given a booking for using too much force in outmuscling Tuomas Rahja for the ball.
The second half saw little immediate improvement in Grilled's fortunes, as they were again on the back foot. Zou Yom-Keh sounded a stern warning as his mighty effort after cutting in shook the goalframe. Grilled heeded it, and a swift counter minutes later might have paid dividends had
Zoltán Árva pulled the trigger early. As it was, he dallied for a couple of seconds too long, and was swiftly crowded out.
John MacKinnon would make no such error, and in fact the big Scotsman let loose a screamer when he had better options available on either side. Chee Lee Tse appeared to have it covered as it sped straight at him, but the ball took a wicked dip at the last instant, and proved to be the winner for the Birds.
