Late Four-titude
Dorogan Inspires Fightback
The Birds appeared on the verge of another disappointing scoreless trip, but ended up bettering their usual haul of three goals from newbies are newbies as they let loose all their ammunition in the final twenty minutes. Longtime tormentor Roshadi bin Che Rusli got his third ever against Grilled as he captured the Man of the Match award, but a superior team effort from the visitors deserved the victory.
newbies had struggled after transitioning to an all-local side, and had let in six goals in each of their two previous league games this season. While they are rumoured to have a substantial transfer budget in reserve, they have shown little inclination to touch it, other than splashing out a modest S$2.4 million for midfielder Chew Woon Lee, instead responding by introducing a new all-pink home kit, replacing their short-lived green and white stripes.
The change appeared to have worked, as newbies led the Jurong derby by the nose in the opening half. 31 year-old national legend Roshadi was his usual aggressive self as he snapped at the heels of Fonseca in the fourth minute after losing the ball, collecting a premature booking for that. That didn't affect his game at all, and he was close to having an assist after passing well to rampaging fullback Mohd Shahril Nizam bin Salim, who however stroked wide.
Grilled, who played their newly preferred 2-5-3 formation, were bent on taking the ball through the middle, and succeeded in the 37th minute as Bögengang slipped it through to
Chow Ying Lee, who however flopped with a tame effort right into Sim Kian Eng.
Lin Jungui, who had joined the attack, was then caught napping as Yang Hongxin brought the ball up thirty yards down his flank, and Madaini could do nothing as Roshadi cut in front of him and first-timed a volley past
Dexter Stacey in the Grilled goal.
Han Lik-Tsun had seen enough, and substituted the unimpressive Jungui with
Anders Josefsson for the second half. The additional ball retention that the Swede brought lifted the Birds, and after much knocking on the door, they equalised through
Gleb Dorogan in the 71st minute, with
Chow Ying Lee providing a good distraction down the left.
Grilled didn't take long to press home their advantage, and
Erik Back dismissed concerns about his fitness with some wonderful acceleration from a standing start, leaving Mohd Sofi bin Nan, who had struggled after a first-half knock, behind easily.
Mohd Safri bin Mohd Kassim screamed for the pass, and duly smashed it in from close up.
newbies gave themselves hope as they made the most of a rare free-kick, having thrown nearly everybody into the Grilled penalty area to get something from the match. Stacey was completely unsighted by the teeming mass of bodies as Mohd Shahril Nizam bin Salim again attacked his near post, and only realised that the ball was in his net after the fact.
Han was quick to respond with an attacking substitution to claim all the points, pulling
Qassem Madaini off for
Edvaldo Mourão, with the Portuguese looking extremely eager to make his first league appearance since featuring in a loss to BDSM FC in the middle of last season. His energy played a huge part in getting the ball high to
Yvan Lefébure, who leaped powerfully to send a header straight past Kian Eng with only five minutes left.
That deflated the home team completely, and Grilled could have racked up a much larger scoreline had last minute attempts by Josefsson and Bögengang gone in. Instead, they had to settle for a fourth by Bögengang, who walked right through the defence to make it seven in three matches against one of his favourite teams to face.
