Shev For Seven
Rotteveel Invictus
Hotshot
Maikel Rotteveel rewrote the Grilled history books when he struck seven times in succession against embattled SHEV UNITED, shattering the previous high of six by Ola Martinsson set in the Cup against Tanglin United some fourteen seasons past.
The scoreline itself was not out of the ordinary, given that SHEV UNITED had lost their previous eight matches by a minimum of seven goals, while failing to score any. This did not deter the over fifty thousand of mostly-Grilled supporters who turned up, however, and they seemed to approach the contest with all the deplorable eagerness of a mob gathering to watch an impending train crash.
Rotteveel had been in fact suffering from a lackluster goal return in recent games, bagging only one in the previous four league fixtures, and therefore when he squeezed in to notch the opener, there was more relief than expectation from the fans. Certainly, after MacKinnon got floored and subsequently stretchered off, Rotteveel was far from the uppermost thing on their minds.
That began changing after substitute
Quah Han Kok, who had been chalked in for a deserved rest, put Rotteveel through in the 21st minute, and when Subri was tripped up in the opposition area, it was simply a sign for the Dutchman to "just" claim his 19th competitive hattrick for the Birds.
A sense that something special was beginning picked up after the less-than-expert SHEV UNITED defence, not having learnt their lesson, quite openly held Huihong back less than two minutes after the first penalty incident, and Rotteveel easily scored from the spot again. He then razed a path through the defence to claim a fifth in the 35th minute, notably a feat that he had achieved four times already in his Grilled career, though all in the Cup.
By then, the fans were aware that the mark was there to be broken, with more than an hour remaining against a less-than-motivated visiting side. However, it was take until the 61st minute before Rotteveel got another chance, this off another penalty kick after he himself had been illegally halted.
That equalled Martinsson's record, and the question of whether he could surpass it was put to bed but two minutes later; The crowd behind the SHEV UNITED goal were united in willing him to shoot, and shoot he did, putting his full weight behind the shot. Mohd Zan bin Haniff didn't even move as Rotteveel made Grilled history.
The rest of the match was quite an anti-climax, with Rotteveel obviously cooling off his efforts; his pass for the far better positioned Subri for 8-0 was for once not a crowd-pleaser.
Quah copped the ninth in the 84th minute, before some ill-tempered shenanigans by the visitors resulted in two bookings and a hobbling Branbilla in the dying minutes, with Subri adding a tenth that meant little in the greater scheme of things.
