Blackwood On Fire
Turu Hattrick
Grilled relinquished their Singapore Unofficial Championship as heimu XI unified the tag with the Singapore Unofficial Competitive Championship that they currently hold, as the Birds gave a damp squib of a performance to begin the league on a losing note for the fourth season in a row.
The much-agonized-over injury to
Mohd Safri bin Mohd Kassim forced new head coach
Niculae Stanca to revert to a 3-5-2, which meant that a place opened up at the back for 35 year-old Bulgarian former international
Slavcho Tzonkov, who had made only 13 appearances last season. heimu XI had no such concerns, and latest signing S$3 million French wingback Jérôme Vagner eased in on the right of a back three.
Stanca's intentions to go on the offensive and keep opponents busy would be severely tested without Mohd Safri, and even worse for him, the all-day shower meant that the default focal point of Grilled's attack,
Chow Ying Lee, had his best weapon curtailed. The few travelling Grilled faithful sensed that it wasn't to be their day, after Chow slid onto his butt attempting to accelerate for a forward pass by Tian.
Faced with this fresh setback, the Birds banked on the hosts being affected in a similar fashion, and heimu XI were indeed not particularly convincing going forward either, until Safri bin Mustapa sold
Lin Jungui a dummy and was blocked off by the defender. Tobies Turu, who had only opened his account against Grilled last season, adjusted the ball lovingly, and then ripped it over the top of the defensive wall and past a dumbfounded
Dexter Stacey.
With pace mostly taken out of the equation by the heavy ground, the contest turned increasingly physical, and Dutch midfielder Willy Hinderdael came off the worse after a meaty clash of heads with
Abdul bin Jantan. Former newbies academy defender Lee Chao Cheng had to come on, but if Grilled thought that this would slow heimu XI down, they were sadly mistaken.
While
lu Zunwen upped his game and at times looked like the only player out there who was really enjoying his job, the tempo still belonged to the home side and their watertight backline, and it was only a matter of time until they extended their lead. Turu worked his way into the penalty area with Madaini fearful to touch him lest he go down, and the on-form Spaniard picked out the bottom corner of the net despite being unbalanced.
Stanca, standing in the rain, was lost for a reply, and the half-time pep talk was to no avail as Grilled did concede a penalty despite their best efforts.
Paolo Iten bumped Kusi Hennig slightly as the Swiss raced by him, and Kusi went down naturally enough on the slippery surface. The referee could do nothing other than point to the spot, and Turu completed his eleventh career hat-trick easily enough.
With their job about done, the home side began to take it easy, and Stanca's substitutions of
Alex Fonseca for
Lin Jungui and
Vukota Crkvenjakov on for the tiring
Slavcho Tzonkov found little to recommend them. It was only because of good concentration by Stacey that Grilled were able not to fall further behind, as Xie Ruoqing pulled the trigger unexpectedly. The ensuing counterattack got all the way to
Chow Ying Lee, but Chow was unable to pull away from the defence as usual, and the break ended lamely with a weak effort into the side-netting.
Just as the Grilled support thought that the worst was over, Lee Chao Cheng launched himself into an unrestrained sliding tackle from the side into
Zhu Changchun, which sent the much-watched midfielder flying. It was obvious that Zhu had been hurt badly, with Stanca ordering the medics on even before he had stopped rolling.
The assault demanded an answer from Zhu's teammates, and after Lee had been booked, the Birds finally found a goal to bring home from this miserable outing.
Chow Ying Lee had no need to run after the ball was played to his foot in the 84th minute by
Seytek Djekshenkulov, and he instantly put it away to make the defeat slightly more palatable.
