Lions Tamed
Tang Takes Off
What was meant to be the site of the big return for the celebrated duo of
Mohd Safri bin Mohd Kassim and
Zhu Changchun became a baptism of goals for the incredible 19 year-old
Tang Hengcai, who hit a brace on his league debut, and otherwise hustled the Birds towards a much-needed 4-2 win at the 100000-capacity Lions' Lair to get them out of the cellar.
Tang was a surprise inclusion, but
Niculae Stanca had his reasons for reserving
Tian Yonghang for the midweek Cup game, and his decision to include the sizzling youth forward never came into doubt. Tang, who has scored in six of his eight senior appearances before today for a total of ten goals, showed just why he is so often compared to Mohd Safri, whose own record at the beginning of his career was just three goals over the same span of matches.
The Lions were sitting pretty in the top half of the table after they beat The Unbelieveable heavily on opening day, and only one change was made from that side, which was veteran winger Faziallah bin Saidi in for trainee Heng Keng Tong; Grilled started with arguably nine of their strongest, with Tian rested and Saudi captain Qaseem Madaini starting on the bench.
The hosts, who had been freely scoring with seven in their opening two games, started strongly and probed at Grilled's shaky defence. Khaironnisam Abu Salim was good value to open in the 18th minute when he exchanged passes neatly with Lee Puay Wen and plowed a grounder at the far corner, but to Stacey's relief it wound up skipping inches wide.
All this action took its toll on
Lin Jungui, who took his time standing up from yet another hard fall in the 28th minute, and
Tang Hengcai chose this time to make a statement. While Grilled had gotten little joy in butting their head against the Lion's central defence, Tang shook off their tight attentions by pushing the ball wide, and then cut in at pace without warning. It was too late for bin Shariff to recover, and Tang made it five straight games of scoring with an excellent finish behind a diving Tan Fu Liang, a record far more accomplished strikers would be proud of.
Grilled wouldn't hold the lead for long as the Lions roared back, and they enjoyed a good stretch which saw Luo Ziyou hammering a piledriver at some speed, which nearly put a brave Jungui out for the count. They continued picking away at Grilled's holes at the back, and Chia Xin Meng inevitably found one in the 37th minute as he split Tzonkov and Lin to equalise.
The tide turned once again as the Lions lost some of their drive after getting back on level terms, not helped by bin Saidi's teeth being blunted after getting a yellow for going in unnecessarly roughly on
Abdul bin Jantan. This led to a corner, and Grilled's prowess in the air was amply illustrated when
Seytek Djekshenkulov had to avoid not an opponent but Mohd Safri as he leapt at the hanging cross. The returning star looked mildly annoyed for a moment, but lost no time in embracing his teammate after watching the header strike the back of the net.
Grilled were really getting it on as the Lions went into disarray, and despite Tan Fu Liang's brilliance in batting away a great
Paolo Iten free-kick, he couldn't stop Lin Junggui from placing it in anyway after the ball was retrieved by
Chow Ying Lee, who dribbled it into the area hugging the goalline. This happened to be the first time Lin had scored in the league in some 35 appearances.
It was altogether a very rewarding half for the Birds, who kept their cutting edge through the break. Their recent injury troubles would return to haunt them, however, as bin Jantan sat down clutching his ankle in the 59th minute, after an accidental crossing of feet with Dong Shun as they went after the same ball. He called to be replaced, and
Alex Fonseca went on after a very short warm-up.
Tang Hengcai was not affected at all, for one, and he ran straight at the Lions defence after the game got going again. None of the defenders knew quite what to make of the teenaged livewire who clearly wasn't going to slow down, especially with two other threats lurking at the sides, and once Tang got a nose in front of the hesitating Dong Shun, it was as good as over. 1-4.
Now three down and staring at a mountain in front of them, the Lions picked themselves up and once again worked their way into the Birds' half. Former Felix Power XI and Sengkang Mariners forward Lee Puay Wen made himself some space as he darted inside Tzonkov, and Abu Salim did his part with an accurate pass in to feet. Lee met it well, putting a reducing goal around Stacey.
That was the limit of the Lions' resistance as Stanca replaced Tzonkov with Madaini immediately, and the experienced international rapidly brought things under control.
lu Zunwen then had one of the best attempts of the game when he stooped low to nod a cross into the ground at at the far corner, but once again the inspired Tan Fu Liang flew across his goalmouth to push it wide.
