Charmed To Bits
Safri Fury Released
Grilled went some way towards recovering from Sunday's disastrous home loss by soundly beating recently-promoted Division Three club Real ChamWin F.C, formerly Real Navision F.C, four-nil. To their credit, they had made Robbie Football Club huff and puff to an extra-time victory thanks to Milan Gulikers, but the Birds' pent-up passion was too much for them.
A second defeat after that humbling at the hands of JUtd would have been unthinkable, but with stern Iranian defender Peyman Golcheen patrolling for ChamWin, the fans were not overly confident of an easy day. Not only that,
Zhao Jing Wei was moved to the right side, probably due to
Niculae Stanca experimenting on where best to place his newest acquisition.
Expectations were exceeded this time, as the pieces fell together in the fourth minute. Jonathan Rigot attempted to pick out the overlapping Nikša Vinković, but while the idea was sound,
Shiya Shaahee had read it this time. Plucking the ball gracefully out of the air, Shaahee chipped into empty space and chased, and although Golcheen nearly caught up, the Maldives winger had by then squared it for
lu Zunwen to thunder in.
German goalkeeper Timothy Bancken would get his fingertips to the ball once more in the 26th minute, but
Mohd Safri bin Mohd Kassim had put that bit extra behind the shot. While Mohd Safri perhaps had the rain to thank for making it more slippery,
Tian Yonghang didn't share those sentiments, as he couldn't even stand straight half of the time. It would be left to Mohd Safri's more rugged skills to secure Grilled's third, as an opportunistic lofted ball from
Woon Shun An was met by a no less flippant header.
At this, Rigot rallied his men, and Zainuddin bin Abd Majid had a couple of moments of his own when he made
Rashid bin Ahmad look quite uncomfortable, the hosts were unable to get their own back. They did come out attacking for the second half, and a naughty backheel by rookie English forward Duncan O'Riordan should have led to Zainuddin scoring, but he was a little too far ahead and ended up scuffing it to
Dan Seng.
ChamWin coach Faraz Dehdari, currently filling in for the Iranian national side too, hadn't thrown in the tower, and in the 60th minute made the like-for-like replacement of Ottokar Dankner on for Sabri Vacid. Unfortunately for him, it wasn't going to work this time, and
Tian Yonghang shook off the weather conditions to confirm that he was still good for a goal a game. Golcheen's split-second of indecision was enough for Tian to cut in and strike.
Djan Bacelar got his turn in the 70th minute as
Shiya Shaahee retired after a good day, and Mohd Safri then came off in the 82nd minute for
Leong Wan Kang, shortly after nearly wrapping up a hat-trick, ripping a powerful angled drive inches wide. ChamWin however were also denied the consolation they probably deserved, when the impressive Zainuddin saw his effort blocked on the line by an alert
Liang Liyong, allowing Seng to celebrate a clean sheet.
