Just Four Fan
Mourão Up Two
Grilled flattened visiting Mongolian Division Two side saturn-ulaanTC by seven clear goals at The Cooking Pot, with 19 year-old forward
Fan Xiuyu smashing four in, being on top of his game.
Edvaldo Mourão followed up his brace a fortnight ago with another, while
Tian Yonghang got back in the groove with a late effort.
saturn-ulaanTC's arrival in their away strip of dark green stripes on medium gave the Birds an excuse to showcase their yellow third kit, which certainly didn't adversely affect their performance as they got the best of the opening exchanges.
Erik Back, suspended against Changi on Sunday, made up for lost time by making the middle of the park his own.
The first was fast in coming, with Mourão scooting through the visitors' central defenders to crack it past teenaged Romanian goalkeeper Virgil Albei. This was followed by a brace and a yellow card by the all-action
Fan Xiuyu, whose physical style could not be contained by the saturn-ulaanTC defenders.
Despite the goals, the match was largely uneventful, as Grilled's second team struggled to come to an understanding, despite their opponents being even more disjointed. The majority of the game was an exercise in missed opportunities, with
Lee Han Lai on the left being particularly out of touch - understandable given that he had barely played since his debut two seasons ago.
Grilled's sustained pressure would produce a hat-trick for Fan, who was quite clearly looking for it. The former Isle of Flames trainee fell back onto his imposing stature to absorb a shoulder charge from Belgian midfielder Barnabé Veillet, before going all the way.
There would even be a fourth for the delighted striker, as he got through in similar circumstances in the 81st minute, before Yonghang and Mourão shut the door with yet more direct runs. Back and Olsson received yellow cards in the closing stages, with the Swede defender being careful to walk away quickly this time.
