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Mirchev's Moment
Bulgarian
Ivaylo Mirchev savoured his first hat-trick for the Birds against third round Cup opponents A1-united, and notably all his goals came from dead ball situations. It was also a cheery day for two of Grilled's youngsters, who got off the mark.
Lim Shui Jin was relegated to the bench despite some encouraging outings, as Lik-Tsun opted for the safe hands of Valdir to forestall any unwanted surprises. New boy Safrinho rubbed shoulders with Mohd Safri in attack, a partnership which was naturally dubbed the SAS.
Ângelo Cunha Simões found enough favour to start alongside them, with Torsson shifted wide.
Grilled didn't take too long to get going, as Mohd Safri was blocked off illegally by Liang Lee after nine minutes. The forward would combine well with
Ivaylo Mirchev for the free-kick, convincingly stepping over the ball for Mirchev to wing past Gan Wan Keong in the A1-united goal.
The visitors were not in the best of shape, and leftback Au Su Da had to come off after a collision with
Lee Han Lai. Mohd Nizaruddin bin Salleh stepped up and put in several intelligent interceptions, but was completely outsped by Safrinho in the 21st minute. The 17 year-old from Red Chaos was off balance when he got off an uncertain shot, and was delighted to watch it tumble over Wan Keong's gloves and across the goalline.
Lee Han Lai missed a golden opportunity to follow Safrinho's lead as Grilled responded to their coach's urging to attack A1-united's wide men, as Torsson slid a pass down the channel invitingly for the midfielder. Lee unfortunately blasted it right at the goalie.
The heat did nobody any favours, and A1's playmaker Lin Guifeng appeared especially affected. He threw in the towel after having to squat for a breather one time too many, and although Mohd Ramzi bin Abdul Manap was a hardier specimen, A1-united lost most of their creativity with Lin's departure.
Salieri came on for Torsson during half-time, and promptly won a questionable penalty by going down in the box. Mirchev smashed that in, despite Wan Keong going the right way. The goalie might have done better with Han Lai's effort two minutes later, though, as he made a hash of that relatively tame shot.
Zheng Lihai was unleashed on a flagging defence on the hour mark, but Grilled couldn't find any further motivation and had only a well-saved Dorogan header to show until the 80th minute, when Mirchev thumped in a free-kick to complete his hat-trick.
