Suspension Of Disbelief
Eight To The Good
Grilled surpassed all expectations by splattering The Unbelieveable 8-2 in the first meeting between the sides, leaving the visitors with egg on their faces in this Easter match. The Birds were helped by a spate of selloffs at the opposition's end, with Greek wingback Thanos Mpakatselis the latest to move on, and they made Zdeněk Bazala's debut an unsatisfying one with a deluge of goals.
It was a testament to The Unbelieveable's overwhelming strength in depth that they were still able to field a competitive lineup despite the huge shakeup, with the Bruneiean duo of Hj Zaini bin Hj Huzaimi and Hj Haszemi bin Taha providing stability at the core. For all that, it was clear that many of their players were still getting used to the new balance of the side, and even Grilled had little problems dealing with their obvious gameplan of getting the ball to Zaini.
Not that Grilled were much more unpredictable, but the difference was that they had many more opportunities to get it right. This
Mohd Safri bin Mohd Kassim did, after several botched attacks, as he swept in through the heart of The Unbelieveable's defence and deposited one in the right corner of Beniamin Ples' goal.
The Polish goalkeeper has so far been very consistent for his club, and few of the following goals could be said to be his fault. Certainly not the next one, which was hardly anyone's;
Chow Ying Lee stumbled and lost control as he attempted to squeeze between two defenders, and was already launching himself at the loose ball when the assistant referee flagged for an offence in the box. The defenders were incredulous, but there was no taking back that decision, and Grilled were doubly lucky as
Paolo Iten's penalty was touched by Ples, but not enough to stop it from bouncing in.
There was some measure of payback for the visitors, as the referee appeared to turn a blind eye to Dirk Bobers shoving
Lin Jungui aside before chipping
Dexter Stacey to reduce the deficit. It wouldn't last as
Seytek Djekshenkulov nodded home an Iten corner, before
Chow Ying Lee kept the flames fanned with a poached contribution that was suspiciously close to offside.
The contest, which has been simmering for a while, began to come to a boil, and the worked-up Bobers was booked when he put his foot down and refused to let Grilled take a free-kick in the 37th minute. The distraction nearly cost them as Chow again snuck in behind but hit the crossbar, and it was Grilled's turn to be upset when the visitors refused to allow Stacey to receive treatment after he was caught late by Zaini in a scramble, which led to him being unable to reach the forward's shot when the ball was put back in.
It was well that the half was coming to an end, otherwise there might well have been players walking.
Zhu Changchun came dangerously close to that when he took out Husein Hellbo from behind in a probable case of retaliation, and had he not gotten some of the ball he would likely have been off.
The coaches managed to cool the players down during the break, and normal service resumed with a second handshake between the captains at the start of the next half. The Unbelieveable players' lack of understanding began to tell, though, with simple passes beginning to go astray once The Birds got the drift and began to block out the most obvious routes.
The profile of the match switched from a probable Unbelieveable comeback, in all senses of the word, to a desperate attempt to keep Grilled from widening the gap, and there was little that the visitors could have done for either of
Chow Ying Lee's or
Abdul bin Jantan's goals, as they were both outplayed and outnumbered at the back for both moves.
Niculae Stanca's comfort substitutions of
Alex Fonseca and
Walter Ross had an easy time of it as they blended into a dominating side, and the sense of injustice on The Unbelieveable's end grew further after another soft penalty was awarded against them, though this time
Paolo Iten sent Ples the wrong way.
Tian Yonghang put the cherry on top in the 83rd minute, leaving Grilled with eight goals in a league match for the first time in six seasons.
