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Marc Up
26 year-old attacking midfielder
Marc Pujolràs had taken more than a season to acclimatize, but finally sparkled with a consensus Man-of-the-Match display as he saved the Birds from ignominious defeat.
Aware of the excellent form of visiting CharlesCheesePie middlemen Wong Chang De and Zulharisan bin Mamud, coach
Han Lik-Tsun ordered an improbable counter-attacking 3-4-3, with
Walter Ross joining Madaini and Jungui in defence. Unfortunately, this measure turned out to be neither here nor there, and the team was not able to gel properly.
Notwithstanding Pujolràs' stellar work, Grilled were put on the backfoot by CharlesCheesePie's fearless attacking game, and they went ahead through a header that recently-signed former national forward Ng Wee Kiong seemed to have miscued. Only Ng will know whether it was lucky or meant, though, as the ball angled right in, off the bottom of a post.
Grilled put that setback behind them quickly as
Domenik Bögengang bagged his landmark 50th goal for the Birds with a sizzling sprint in from the middle to the right, after Sebastian Schmidt had the ball nicked out from under his feet by a marauding
Chow Ying Lee. Rene Takacs wasn't happy with that mistake at all.
The visitors would finish the half the stronger side as veteran striker Haji bin Yusop shook some of the old magic from his boots and lofted the ball over Stacey and in just under the post, and Grilled's slightly psychotic goalkeeper had to be called into action once more to deny Deng Aik Leng a third, which could have buried Grilled's hopes.
It was down to Han to change things, and
Walter Ross was the first to come off after 55 minutes, making way for
Anders Josefsson, who helped in motivating Grilled's comeback last week. He had rather less effect this time, sadly, looking haggard as temperatures soared.
The match really picked up after Aik Leng caught Madaini on the shins in the 70th minute, which had Jungui rushing over and waving for a booking, which was given. Pujolràs was very close to equalising as
Erik Back put in a good cross from the right, but the main talking point must be Romanian winger János Daday, who lost it after being jostled by Back in the build-up, and attempted to assault him. It was a clear sending-off offence, and referee Witold Went had no qualms in flashing the red card.
This was the opportunity that Han was waiting for, and he quickly pulled off the winded Madaini, together with Jungui, for Lefébure and new signing
Rosendo Chinchay. Again, his tactics paid off in short order, as Pujolràs weaved through the CharlesCheesePie lines on the left with support from Dorogan, and neatly tucked his shot away to make it two-all with about ten minutes remaining.
The momentum and crowd were both solidly behind Grilled, and the visitors had to scramble to preserve the draw, with Zulharisan bin Mamud booked as he tried to slow the pace down. The final clear chance would go to them, however, as Giuseppe Bottino nearly stole the win with a curling free-kick that Stacey barely batted out.
