Birds Hit The Town
Sun-Nee Scores
Facing off for the second time in as many league matches against a 3-4-3 formation, Grilled improved upon their showing against Winning Eleven with a resolute defensive display against Manchester Town F.C. at home.
The three-pronged attack of Dara Kafetsios, Tow Byung Suck and Mao Guo-Hong was adequately dealt with by Grilled's own trinity of Siu-Cheung, Tuan-Mu and Sun-Nee under detoriating pitch conditions.At the other end, Hobson and Chiew-Yen found considerably more success as they took three goals between them.
Mud and rain obscured the players' vision and slowed movement to a crawl as both sides slogged it out aimlessly early on, giving an almost comical slant to the game as the ball kept getting stuck to conclude most potential attacks.
Hobson for one was not amused by the elements when they conspired to rob him of an early opportunity as a perfect pass from Sole stopped dead on its first non-bounce. Neither was the referee when Hobson retaliated by kicking up a clod of mud, unfortunately onto a bemused Razdan's pants. Only the prevailing of common sense by both parties concerned limited the damage to solely a caution for Hobson.
It was up to Sun-Nee to break the deadlock when he ploughed a lone furrow up the right without any Town defender noticing until it was too late, which made the home fans a little warmer during half-time.
The closing of the heavens prompted more open play in the second half, and deft interchanges between Pence and Dai-Lin produced a goal that sent the crowd to its feet. Not having forgotten Hobson's phenomenal streak, and concerned with him not having scored his usual early goal, home fans started chanting for their favorite.
Though their voices reveberated around the small arena, it seemed to be in no avail before Hobson did answer their call in the eightieth minute as Hobson overlapped Seng-kar on the right and ended up in the middle with the ball neatly tucked away. The legend was not finished however, as he sent the crowd totally delirious with a swerving free-kick in the dying minutes, to complete a brace when he had appeared to be returning empty-handed for the first time for as long as anyone could remember.