Turnaround Week
Momentary Reprive
Grilled gained a measure of revenge for last week's costly defeat at ownerless BonGGie FC, as they blitzed the Changi side for their second biggest league victory ever. The scoreline may be of little consolation to the fans, who continued showing their displeasure by staying away from The Cooking Pot, but there was not much more that the team could have done to mollify the supporters.
Winning was more or less assured after the visitors released all contracted players just days ago, and their new first eleven of hopeful amateurs was rapidly taken apart by a hungry Grilled XI. Rotteveel was replaced by
Mohd Firdaus bin Yaacob due to the red card he sustained, but was barely missed as Subri alone was heads and shoulders above the opposition. The crossbar denied him in the second minute, while nothing could in the thirteenth as he bullied his way through the centre with aggressive dribbling.
Clearly outmatched both individually and as a team, the new BonGGie side had not yet had time to forge an understanding, and had to resort to delaying tactics. The referee overlooked a few niggly tackles, but had to book both Yao Chuanzhong and Farid bin Abd Rani for blatant fouls. Veteran 33 year-old
Dani Spirig responded to the persistent transfer rumours concerning him with two well-taken strikes, either side of a messy Árva effort that went right by the BonGGie goalie.
Spirig achieved only the second hat-trick of his long career after the break, as he somewhat selfishly went for goal despite being surrounded, with teammates to either side. Raw goalie Wu Jianhao was seemingly overawed by the occasion, and succeeded only in punching the weak grounder into the corner of his net.
Penati's personality shone through again as he picked up an entirely avoidable caution, as he deliberately stood over an opponent free-kick when he had probably been in the wrong. It might have been worth it had Grilled been chasing the game, but at five-nil it was pretty dumb, as a furious Liehner made clear from the sidelines. Spirig in contrast could do no wrong, and even played through a cynical kick to the shin from an outclassed defender.
Grilled kept up the pressure, and it was strange that it took Subri nearly an hour after his first goal to find another one. He had himself to thank as his reflexes allowed him to trap a sloppy pass, and then sprang forward to bury it past Wu. Árva, not to be outdone, made it 7-0, but Subri was unlucky not to get a hat-trick too after his imaginative volley crashed against the upright. Han Kok then added his own, while Firdaus salvaged an otherwise unimpressive showing with a neat finish at the end.
