Storm Stomp
Ellinas Excellent
The reserves were wiped out by Cypriot Division Three club *Blue Storm*, whose unique strip of light on dark blue diamond checkers clicked delightfully at a The Cooking Pot filled with nearly five thousand curious. Grilled in contrast stammered through an indifferent display, with the forwards lacking any sort of bite.
The Storm are currently challenging for promotion, and it was not hard to see why with their fluid passing from the get-go. They could be terrifyingly direct when called upon, though, as seen when
Colby Awyong put a foot wrong, and had Bulgarian teenager Todor Ganchev pass him on his outside in an instant. Ganchev picked out Georgi Kodinov, who had arrived just inside the box to peg an accurate grounder that Noubaryan barely missed saving.
No such hope four minutes later, when captain
Hilal Bakhtiar assumed that his goalkeeper had not retreated back to his goal before tapping a causal backpass to his last known position. Credit has to go to the alert Giorgos Ellinas for spotting the mistake and claiming the ball with a committed lunge, before picking his spot against the forlorn goalie.
Grilled survived a poor finish by Nestoras Pallikaridis from a well-crafted indirect free-kick, only to fall again to another rush down the left, which overwhelmed Grilled's extended flank. Adam Lehman got his name on the scoreboard this time, having come a long way from his rightback position to mop up after Ellinas couldn't reach the cross in time.
The scoreline stayed at 0-3 through half-time until the 52nd minute, when Ellinas got his second having broken forward at the right moment. The Birds' efforts were dismal to say the least, with the strikers on completely separate wavelengths. They had barely mustered a respectable strike between them when Tobias Godmar snuck in a fifth.
The visitors did slow down appreciably after confirming the win with that, having given a good account of their stamina under the blazing sun for long enough. This home advantage didn't do much for the Birds, however, as they huffed but were unable to make inroads against a thinking Storm defence.
A rare triple substitution of the entire defence with two minutes to go had no effect other than to give the want-away
Alvaro Silvera another appearance, while giving
Alex Fonseca and
Walter Ross an opportunity to run about for a bit.
