Hillside Avalanche
Ennis Explodes
The friendly home win against liman4 proved a flash in the pan, as Grilled's travellers were taken to the cleaners by Australian Division Three club Hillside. The fully second-string selection tried to play defensively, but were simply too weak and had no answer to Hillside's superior attack.
Though Grilled usually field at least one first-team midfielder in each friendly, the exertions against UWT over the weekend meant that they did not have that luxury this time.
Lim Chuan Heng and Chow Puay Hock, given a rare opportunity, looked excited to be part of the team, but they would be thoroughly schooled by the professional Hillside midfield.
The goals weren't long in coming, as Grilled's aged defence leaked like a sieve. Local midfielder Warner Ennis wasted no time in making a surging run from midfield that nobody picked up, and Bao-Tam wasn't up to stopping his swerving strike. Ennis, who has just two professional goals to his name, added a second after a horrible mistake by bin Selamat, and then went the high route to round off his hat-trick after just twenty minutes.
Grilled were at sixes and sevens as Hillside went at them, and Aden Old deserved to score after a delightful one-two. Only the crossbar stopped him that time. Grilled's youngsters appeared to lose confidence, especially
Hu Huihong who couldn't keep his footing on the wet grass and was outmuscled at each turn. Fritz Cantieni didn't even slow as he went by the lad en route to making it four-nil, and Julian Baier curled in Number Five to end the half on a high.
The hosts went from strength to strength, and Gus Stanton nudged past Went Seng-Huat to thump a sixth past the bedraggled Bao-Tam. Indonesian import Cecep Nasution kept his cool to score from a tight angle, and Stanton made it 8-0 with twelve minutes left on the clock with a speculative grounder.
Hu then made a miserable day for him even worse as he copped a yellow card for a petulant tackle that was more out of irritation than any real hope of getting the ball, before Argentinean target man Ernesto Buzurro sent the result into double figures with a late, late brace. Buzurro would leave the field on his back as he pulled a muscle late on, but that didn't avail Grilled any as they struggled to muster a token shot on target.
