Sleeper Held
Two For Tian
Full internationals
Dexter Stacey and
Qassem Madaini, with a combined price tag of over S$10 million, made their Grilled debuts in an uneventful 4-0 victory over Bruneian Division Three club Go To Sleep, who were on a run of 13 unbeaten competitive matches. Neither of them was called upon much as the visitors neglected to field a single forward, however, and homegrown striker
Tian Yonghang was the standout with a quality brace.
Go To Sleep, playing in all blue, had few illusions about attacking, and banked their hopes on a five-man defence marshalled by German sweeper Gerdt Pösch. Local boy Jin-Suk Lee, just turned professional less than a month ago, started in the left of midfield, while wingers Milan Gammelgard and Guillermo Gac tried to break on the wings whenever possible.
That was never likely to work against a Grilled side packed with players out to win a place for themselves in next season's starting eleven, although 33 year-old workhorse
Mohd Firdaus bin Yaacob will be under few illusions about his future even as he dropped a cheeky lob over Amiruddin bin Mohd. Mohd Firdaus knew well that he was fielded only because of an injury to the up-and-coming
Fan Xiuyu, but accepted his colelagues' congratulations nevertheless.
The visiting side found the going tough, and Polish defender Igor Ciemieniewski gave away a penalty by tripping Safrinho in the box, one which
Yvan Lefébure duly converted. They appeared unused to how crowded it was in the box, and two defenders accidentally sandwiched Stanca six minutes later to give away yet anotehr spot kick. However, Lefébure was too casual with that, and sidefooted it wide despite Amiruddin going the wrong way.
Tian Yonghang followed up
Edvaldo Mourão's stinging effort coming in from the left, and got lucky when the shot was palmed into his path. The Chicken Wings graduate notched another in the second half as Mohd Firdaus worked some brillance in the middle. The Birds would fail to score after that, however, as Go To Sleep tightened their defence, with Maor Halimi getting the only card of the game late on.
