Bubbling Indignation
Mamedov Vilified
While Grilled sank to their third league defeat in four matches, the fans were for once not on new coach
Han Lik-Tsun's back, mainly as the former captain had been left lying on his own no thanks to Chemistry fullback Panak Mamedov's antics.
This fixture had all the makings of a brilliant match after the earlier edition finished 4-3 to Chemistry, though attendance was still less than ideal, no thanks to the ongoing World Cup. Chemistry took ten minutes to break the Grilled defence then, and this fell to six minutes this time round, with American forward Lee Pena passing
Ronny Behr and putting in a quick shot.
Then came the moment that the Grilled fans had been waiting for. The 17 year-old
Mohd Safri bin Mohd Kassim finally displayed the verve and balance that had so endeared him to scouts and the public alike, and made the hard-as-nails Boris Katrinčák look out of his depth with a simple dropped shoulder. Brúnó Lantos couldn't quite keep out Safri's curling effort, and the delighted young forward celebrated with a strange running-in-circles routine.
Nawaz Talib, freshly back after a long lay-off, had trouble finding his feet, and was slow to react to a fast break down his flank. Panak Mamedov overlapped and smashed in a hybrid cross-shot that had Valdir bemused for a moment, but the Brazilian keeper retained enough presence of mind to first block the venomous strike, then scramble it out for a corner.
The Chemistry pressure finally told, and Hungarian striker Kálmán Géza once more got his name on the scoresheet, although it came after a horrible miss that came about after
Ronny Behr tried to be too clever in defence and got caught.
Mamedov, already less than popular with the home support after his appeal for a penalty kick after his earlier failed attempt, then got a chorus of boos after he hacked Talib down after the Pakistani managed to get the better of him in a tussle on the touchline. This aggravated Talib's just-healed knee injury, and it was all he could do to roll out of bounds and signal to come off.
Han Lik-Tsun replaced Talib at the unfamiliar position of left-back, and Mamedov was thereafter greeted with jeers whenever he touched the ball. This vitriol had largely died down as the two sides played some entertaining football through to the 62nd minute, then all hell broke loose as Mamedov slid in hard on Lik-Tsun with little hope of winning the ball.
That challenge left Han writhing, and the stadium shocked into silence for a second; After that frozen moment, the usually placid
Ronny Behr rushed at Mamedov, Mamedov's teammates rushed in to usher him away, and Grilled's other players joined in the fracas. Meanwhile, objects began to be thrown across the fencing separating the away section from the rest of the fans, and security personnel struggled to maintain order.
Play was stopped for nearly ten minutes as the referee and his assistants sorted things out, and to his credit the only card shown was to the person who set off the whole sorry series of events. Mamedov was escorted off in double-quick time, and the 20 year-old
Chan Woon Jin made an unexpected debut.
The atmosphere in The Cooking Pot was by now incendiary, and
Domenik Bögengang's 80th minute goal was celebrated as if it had occured in a Cup final, shaking the entire stadium - an impressive feat seeing as it was less than half full.
Gehberger however won the points for Chemistry with another brace, as he had done a month ago, with Tiberiu Atanasie getting a late yellow card; This didn't please the already worked-up crowd, and the decision was wisely taken to allow the away fans to depart and disperse before the home ones were let loose.
