Onto The Deck
Virtually Gone
Grilled are as good as down for the count after fellow Western club The Void Deck did the double over them, thanks to some good holding work in midfield. The hosts, chasing the championship title, were always going to be a tough nut for Grilled to crack, but the Birds did at least give it a good go.
The wide Ground Zero pitch gave plenty of room for The Void Deck's trio of forwards to roam, two of whom Grilled didn't encounter in their first meeting. One of these, the Turkish Tayyip Nazım, knew a thing or two about keeping the ball under control, and held off Árva expertly for long enough to release a superb grounder around Valdir.
Grilled were helped by the leg injury to French central defender Gérard Bertin in the 20th minute, and eagerly focused their runs on him. Even though his teammates compensated by providing more cover, Subri got through a few minutes later, and hit it so hard that Alphonse Remetter couldn't keep it out despite nearly getting his body behind it.
There was then some exhilarating end-to-end action, as a long ball out was brought down by Han Kok and passed to his side for MacKinnon. The Scotsman, never known for his dribbling, forced his way past two challenges, before releasing a great pass that barely skidded away from Rotteveel as Remetter closed in.
Grilled went from near-elation to real despair very rapidly, as Remetter threw the ball all the way to English winger Ryan Nayak on the halfway line. Nayak was off in a flash, and the Grilled defence couldn't recover as Nazım positioned himself in the right place to receive the cross and drill it past Valdir.
This exchange was not over yet, and Grilled drove forward straight from the kickoff.
Feng Darong found himself with plenty of space ahead of him after Penati cleverly switched play between the flanks, and he picked out MacKinnon on the edge of the box. MacKinnon once again defied all expectations by deftly chipping Remetter, causing the visiting fans' section to erupt in cheers.
It was then all to play for in the second half, with the hosts were marginally unfortunate not to be ahead. Their midfield dominance began to tell after the break, and Bertin nearly got revenge for what happened in the first half, with a rushed shot that came off Lik-Tsun towards the near post. Valdir barely managed to use a foot to ward that away.
Grilled's defence were now under heavy pressure, and German wingback Lars Menth eventually curled in a brilliant shot from the byline to put his side ahead in the 73rd minute. The disheartened Birds never looked like coming back after that one, and Valdir had to pull off a wondersave from Faccioli to keep the score down.
