Twelve And Out
Fan Makes Impact
New signing
Fan Xiuyu made a terrific start to his Grilled career by netting his first goal within seven minutes of coming on, and against league leaders seluraralc, no less. The Birds finally began to fulfil their pre-season promise as they impressed mightily at The Cooking Pot, methodically dismantling a team that had won their last eleven competitive matches, including all five in the league thus far.
Notwithstanding Grilled's encouraging form, not many of their supporters expected too much against seluraralc, who had beaten Arrogancae and CharlesCheesePie - sides which had in turn defeated Grilled - by two-goal margins. A straw poll around the ground before the match confirmed that most would have taken a draw, and they appeared to be proven right in the opening minutes.
Penati had been dropped again, and was not even on the bench, as Grilled hefted up the midfield. That had little immediate effect, however, with the seluraralc engine room purring, and Spanish defender Luis Abonxo found the woodwork as early as the sixth minute.
The Birds were all over the place, and would have lived out their borrowed time if not for some stout defending. The visitors were unfortunate not to have several calls go for them, so when
Vukota Crkvenjakov upended current league top scorer Can Arafat in the box, Grilled could have few complaints when the penalty was given. Valdir was between the posts, fortunately, and he managed to hold on to the shot after Brandão opted for safety over power.
That was a turning point, as Grilled found a second wind from their great escape. They attacked seluraralc's thin backline with numbers, and after some inspired passing, the ball trickled through to
Ronny Behr, who gobbled up his third of the season. It was scruffy, but no-one cared.
The rain played a part in breaking down seluraralc's pass-and-move gameplan, with Sng Wan Rong especially affected, less so Grilled's two fastest players on the pitch.
Erik Back sloshed down the left side at a tremendous clip and played it inside without looking.
Chow Ying Lee happened to be heading for the right spot, luckily, and the much-heralded young forward played it over former Shingen's Marauders goalie Chua Puay Ming for Grilled's second.
seluraralc's day took another turn for the worse as
Mohd Safri bin Mohd Kassim so very nearly made it three with a speculative lob from the edge of the penalty area, which had the side-effect of removing Abonxo from the fray after the defender ran head-first into Bögengang's knee in trying to block the attempt. Kwok Kong Hui had to come on in his stead.
The delighted home crowd feted their heroes as they marched off after a fruitful first half, and again after Han led them back on for the second, minus Josefsson and with Kim.
Erik Back was the next to leave, and was replaced by
Quah Han Kok, as Grilled were happy to slow the play down, not a particular difficult thing to do with the weather as it was.
seluraralc sounded a warning as they pulled one back in the 69th minute, with player-coach Aymeric Guillon motioning for Italian frontman Lorenzo Minicucci to stay upfield. Guillon's tactic paid off in minutes, as Behr misjudged a long ball hit out of the seluraralc defence, and Minicucci took it all the way past Valdir in a breathtaking showcase of close control.
Han Lik-Tsun was no slouch in the tinkering department either, and having noticed Chow starting to struggle in the poor conditions, saw it fit to give
Fan Xiuyu a runout after Mohd Safri poached a third in the 76th minute. Grilled's hottest talent had barely put a foot wrong all game long, and must definitely be one for the future, the way things are going.
The Birds' singing fans had expected little more from Fan than to soak up the atmosphere and gain some confidence, but he surpassed all expectations by slicing past Kwok and banging an unstoppable cannonball through Chua's gloves in the 83rd minute. This was an achievement that far more highly-rated wonderkids like Mohd Safri and Chow had not managed to achieve, and Fan had every right to celebrate as maniacally as he did.
That also extinguished any lingering hope seluraralc had of taking a point from the game, and Brandão's free-kick onto the post was the closest they would get after that, as Grilled played out a huge win.
