Tring Tonked
Saint John
Grilled fared much better in the second leg of their home-and-away friendly series with 1.FC Mammutring, even if their fledging strikeforce didn't have too much to do with it.
Still smarting from their 5-1 loss at Mammut - Arena, the Birds went for the jugular from the get-go, and received what might have been charitably called a home penalty in the seventh minute. Mohd Safri looked suitably sheepish after taking a less than convincing tumble on the edge of the box, but referee Jussi Pyöräniemi blew immediately, and MacKinnon obligingly rifled it in.
Mammutring had good cause to feel hard done by, and Mollwitz's goal the very next minute had the ring of karma about it.
Chan Woon Jin then did his best to overcompensate by passing straight to Hurna, who should have put his side ahead, which the long-named teenager Markus-Dimitri Jessen-Lenz did with a long-limbed run from midfield.
MacKinnon then replied with a guileless free-kick that exploded through the Mammutring defensive wall, but
Li Shunguo spoilt that with an ill-advised foul deep in his own territory. The visitors took their time setting up a play, and Horst Binert became the only player to score in both legs.
Chan Woon Jin's spate of errors continued, as he flung himself to the ground far too readily, and could only earn himself a booking. Mirchev did appear to be tripped by Raidl in the box, but the referee was by now leery of making penalty calls, and waved play on. The Birds had to rely on
Lim Shun Jin, who gutsily broke through and made it 3-3 to end the half.
Grilled raised their game in the second half, and that quickly paid dividends as Zhang Lihai found himself with time and space in the middle, after plenty of movement by his teammates. He was somewhat disappointed to find himself taken off after 60 minutes for
Ângelo Cunha Simões, while the recovered Torsson got some applause coming on for Salieri.
In response, Mammutring put Jiménez on, and Lim, bored by all the waiting, restarted the game in laughable fashion when he threw the ball right to a surprised Negredo, who waited too long to cross.
Another swap, this time Medeot for Jessen-Lenz, didn't work too well, and Grilled extended their lead through a precise header from Shunguo, who had Safri to thank for attracting all the attention. Shun Jin was confident enough to let loose from well outside the box, and the odd flight of the ball required timely intervention from Mammutring's goalie Giuseppe Giusto.
The closest that the visitors came was in the 75th minute, when Hatten sidefooted wide from five metres, while MacKinnon cleaned up with another well-taken penalty after an indisputable foul. With the game all but gone from them, Mammutring replaced their captain, Giusto, with Alex Feustel with a couple of minutes remaining.
