Favoured By Fortune
Moey Manages It
In what had to be considered as a largely-undeserved upset by the Birds, they enjoyed a great run of luck in squeaking past former Irish Ruby Challenger Cup winners Fortuna Donabate, to advance to the next round of the Islanders Grand Tour tournament. While Donabate had dropped to the fourth division after a long but ultimately unsuccessful period in II.1, where they finished runners-up a couple of times but never quite bust through to the Irish Premier, they remained clearly more organized and solid than this Birds lineup. Accidents and random bounces would go Grilled's way when it mattered, however, and they made the most of it while it lasted.
Donabate had entered the match with a goal difference advantage over Grilled, which meant that a draw would be no use to the latter. With full knowledge that local head coach Robert Murphy would almost certainly string five at the back,
Tian Yonghang retained no better option than to order his charges to attack as they could. This had
Moey Xin Seng at the point directly up against the much younger and sprightlier Norwegian sweeper Nicki Hvidtfeldt, which didn't bode well for Moey at all. Donabate's homegrown midfield trio of ó Briain, Henderson and Galvin moreover threatened to hold their own against superior numbers, and Henderson took but six minutes to send a dinky chip whistling past
Dimitris Germanakos' left post, with the goalkeeper already well-beaten.
Grilled would improve after that early storming against all odds, which had the previously-dominant Irish side flagging suddenly. Venezuelan forward Lorenzo Magallanes would be left with a booking after slicing
Kalki Parvathaneni down in a vain attempt to slow a Grilled breakout, which had
Bilal Mohammad Harun fire straight into Luca Buccheri, stunning him for an instant. Kalki was absolutely flying for some minutes here, and he looked twenty years younger as he ripped down the right wing in the 18th minute, before doubling back for a deceptively soft pass on for
Gandhik Chitre. The teenager's had gained a taste for goals lately, so it seemed, as he duly swept it home - aided by an odd bump in the turf.
Buccheri would be left cursing the groundskeeper there, but Donabate had little reason to stay upset, as they soon regained the initiative for the remainder of the first half, a couple of eye-catching efforts by Moey and Kalki aside. Grilled's defence would exhibit surprising resilience to stall the opposing forwards, at least until Henderson found himself entirely free as Teisutis Filiovas bombed up the left. Once the ball reached him, it was always going to be the equalizer.
That had it at one-all at the forty-fifth, if with the Irish team still heavily favoured to go through, which they would if the scoreline merely remained the same.
Lim An Keng taking over from Kalki didn't seem likely to help Grilled's cause, from how the veteran's unique acceleration had helped his team so much in the first half, but Lim would surpass expectations with his own brand of interactions, especially with fellow academy graduate Chitre.
Donabate were still the ones making things happen, with Henderson generally in control of the direction of the game. It all went south when he lost out for a moment in the 58th minute, however, in a clash with
Bilal Mohammad Harun. A sharp pass through to
Chan Ze Han would be shielded and given right back to a rampaging
Aw Keng Chuan, whose wild strike would spin unstoppably into the bottom right corner - surely not how Aw had intended it!
They all count, however, and Donabate didn't have the time to mull over that happy mistake - for Grilled, at least - anyway. They were getting a little sloppy in covering the wide men now, what with being impatient to draw level again, and
Enrique Baena would finally beat Filiovas to the endlines for once. The angle was ideal for crossing, but
Moey Xin Seng had to meet it some four yards outside the near post. No problem, as he pulled off an immaculate glancing header, to put the Birds 3-1 up.
Well, this certainly didn't quite reflect the balance of the match thus far, but Donabate had to deal with it. They would have their fullbacks press aggressively now, and this would yield a goal in short order, with a turnover being channeled through ó Briain and onwards. Hvidtfeldt would be the unlikely scorer, as he charged in on the second wave.
Bhavya Panigrahi had an opportunity for an immediate response as
Chan Ze Han won a free-kick at the other end, but Buccheri sprang high to palm the strike over. He would have been hard done by, elsewise.
That would soon be followed by a double substitution, with oldies Moey and Bilal making way for
Teo Chuan Yong and
Hwang Teck Fu. Hwang in particularly didn't look all that convincing, but he did well enough to help preserve the win - which was all that mattered.
