Hocked By Tian
Shaky Start
Tian Yonghang got the first competitive hat-trick of his career as he shone against Division Five Cup opponents HOCKHAI FC, which brought him Man-of-the-Match plaudits. Grilled had to endure a less than assured beginning to the game, though, and could well have found the contest much tougher than it turned out to be.
Safri bin Mohamad's individual brillance had given the Birds a slightly undeserved lead in the sixth minute, as the hosts took Grilled's slightly complacent personnel by surprise with their workrate, and they should have gone level through Fan Chufeng after an embarassing penalty by
Yvan Lefébure.
HOCKHAI were looking like the favourites as they hemmed Grilled back with intelligent passing despite Grilled's numerical superiority in midfield, and this went on until their influential target man Aw Tian Kian pulled a muscle in the 26th minute. That had an instant impact on their confidence, and Tian took advantage to get clear on their weaker left side and score.
Lefébure made amends for his earlier hoo-hah with a wickedly swerving free-kick past goalie Zhuang Hongming, who had no hope after the strike cleared his wall, and HOCKHAI were weakened further after Safrinho caught midfielder and bookkeeper Fan Baoxiang square in the back with a high boot, and was lucky to stay on, while Fan had to be replaced.
Tian again preyed on the confusion, hitting a sweet volley in, which marked the first time that the youngster had scored more than one in a real game.
The Birds displayed more urgency after the break, with Josefsson very close with crack from outside the penalty area, before
Björn Olsson finished from close in. The goal meant that the Swedish backup defender now has scored from his last three appearances for the team.
Tian mopped up with a canny placed header in the 82nd minute, before Josefsson and Xiuyu were booked in quick succession for rough play. HOCKHAI FC's Liu Baoqi was seen having a few words with Josefsson about his questionable challenge after the final whistle, before burying the hatchet and swapping shirts.
