Hotspurs Share
Sheer Safri
The Birds had to come from behind four times to secure a point from Phantasm Hotspurs, even as the hosts had key midfielders Song Kang Ho and Ng How Loong sitting the match out through injury. Aware of this,
Niculae Stanca decided to beef up Grilled's midfield heft, slotting
Alex Fonseca on the wing instead of either
Shiya Shaahee or
Paolo Iten.
Phantasm would however make a mockery of Stanca's calculations by trundling along as usual, and leading forward Soon Liang How hurdled
Lin Jungui nine minutes in to flash an angled drive between
Dexter Stacey and his near post. The fractious atmosphere at the back nearly blew up once more, but was contained by the able ministrations of Madaini, and only truly washed away after
Chow Ying Lee removed the stain with a top-drawer strike ten minutes later.
The home side would go ahead again very quickly, as the well-built Mohd Khairol Anuar bin Mat Noor won a battle of elbows against Madaini to claim the second go-ahead goal from an indirect free-kick struggle. Grilled again took their time rising to the occasion, before a worrying hard fall from Stacey was followed up by another outstanding finish, this time from
Zhu Changchun.
Despite holding the ball well enough, Grilled always gave the impression of playing catch-up, and Mohd Khairol Anuar nearly made it an oh-so-simple brace when he chipped narrowly wide unattended to from a cross. Former national U-20 defender Lo Jing Min would succeed instead, shooting when none expected him to, to put Phantasm 3-2 up.
This setback was not exactly a surprise, seeing as to how lax Grilled had been in defence in past matches, and the team did not look particularly confident going into the tunnel. However, they managed to stick to the basics, and
Mohd Safri bin Mohd Kassim dragged Grilled onwards with a no-frills equaliser to make it three-all.
On the flip side,
Shiya Shaahee might have felt that his Grilled career is somehow cursed, as Phantasm went ahead for the fourth time, with his lob barely eluding Stacey. Shaahee immediately went through his gears, but was denied even an assist when his through pass for
Tian Yonghang was powered straight into the opposition keeper.
It was all quite a downer for Grilled, but they did find a leveller once more when Mohd Safri broke through in the 79th minute. With renewed optimism, the Grilled forwards plugged at the Phantasm goalmouth, but would return with just the draw.
