Fingers Burnt
Lofty Loria
Grilled are effectively out of the TokCockSingSong tournament after being flattened 5-0 by reigning S-League champions Isle of Flames, who didn't hold too much back with a side that would have given the Birds' regulars a nightmare.
It was certainly a lot more powerful than what Luis Alcántara had been expecting, as he played trainees
Dennis Kong and
Sandy Fu in the middle, with only one recognized first-team striker in
Chow Ying Lee. The outcome was never in doubt as Flames' five-man defence let nothing through, while Belgian veteran Giacomo Loria put up a hat-trick.
From the get-go, Kong and Fu looked totally out of place against the likes of Avri Dotan, and indeed
Abdul bin Jantan had to do it all himself after a spate of embarassing misplaced passes by the overwhelmed youngsters. It didn't help that the 29 year-old
Hilal Bakhtiar went full retard with a doomed attempt to weave his way out of the box, which led to the ball being nicked by Loria from behind, before being immediately struck home.
Bakhtiar went the other way next, as he overzealously ran up to stop Sebas Soler from taking a quick free-kick. Laughably, the block failed, and further deflected the ball past
Colby Awyong and into the path of Miguel Ángel Quesada, who wouldn't pass up such a gift. Getting booked after that was the final straw.
With no clean sheet for
Wong Tian Han again, he did continue to build his pedigree with a stylish save off Soler's looping header, but that and a few other good stops would not be enough to close the gap. The Birds bumbled at the other end on the few times they managed to get forward, and Kong received a silly yellow for booting the ball away after the whistle.
Bakhtiar must have wished that he would be substituted at half-time given how he let Antti Kärkkäinen in for the third, but the truth was that Grilled were simply outmatched. With no impact replacement on the thin bench, Alcántara decided to let the poor fellows see out the match, and perhaps pick up a few pointers.
Kong wouldn't even manage that as he was dismissed in the 58th minute after quarreling with the referee, as he thought that Kärkkäinen was offside when he received the pass for Flames' fourth. Not that it mattered much by then, with bin Jantan and Chow cutting sad figures as they mostly chased shadows alone.
All that remained was for Loria to get his treble after yet another defensive mix-up, after which
Low Aik Jia joined Bakhtiar in the referee's book after lashing out late at Kärkkäinen.
