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| FIXTURE HISTORY |
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| Season 48 | W | 0 - 5 | Tournament (Group Phase) |
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Phoenixes Pine
Lu Madness
The Birds survived the dismissal of midfield anchor
lu Zunwen at the death of the first half to come out 3-1 winners against Tampines Phoenix F.C. at home. This is the second meeting between the sides, after the scheduled group stage fixture in the SG Super Cup II ended in a walkover in favour of Grilled, and
Mohd Safri bin Mohd Kassim made up for lost time with a sterling brace.
Tampines had just kickstarted their season with a swashbuckling win over heimu XI, and it was little surprise that coach Guo Tze Kiong would stick with the formula at The Cooking Pot. However, they also had a tough Cup tie against Rapala FC to consider, and Guo shuffled his deck thoroughly, switching from 3-5-2 to an even more exciting 3-4-3.
Veteran forward Kwek Chuan Jian was drafted in to maximize their attacking threat, having passed his century milestone not long ago, but up-and-coming wingback Fu Tingyi was a notable omission. Journeyman Lew Lai Ming was restored to the midfield, lining up alongside the 36 year-old Ning Soon Kit and Tengku Hazman bin Awang to complete an extremely battle-proven trio.
Unfortunately, as Grilled's fans have come to witness not that long ago, a less-than-mobile middle often translates into fewer quick turnarounds, but they were more than sufficient to keep the Birds suitably quiet for much of the first forty minutes. There was a compelling free-kick that was dropped between Mohd Safri and Chow, but they took a second to sort it out, and clear-headed academy lad Chang Jin Beng hacked it well clear.
The slow boil finally came to a head as the half approached its end, with
Seytek Djekshenkulov looking like he put more into his tackle on former Felix Power XI striker Abdul bin Abd Wahab than was strictly necessary. Appeals to referee Paco González Rodriguez went unheeded, and Mohd Safri shut that all out to squirrel in the opener.
The contest began to take on the appearance of a real cracker, thanks to Byrne's hands-off approach, and
Qassem Madaini was enranged when Tay Puay Eng hustled him off the ball and laid it wide to Wang Than Le, who crossed in for Abdul to claim his dues. Tay was no sooner belatedly carded for a second offence when
lu Zunwen barged through in a similar way and fed
Abdul bin Jantan to restore the lead within seconds.
The match would have been another feather in lu's growing cap, had he not completely lost it when Tay jogged up to him to discuss his physical approach up close and personal, admittedly slightly ironically. The response of a swipe at the calves was completely uncalled for, though, and Byrne rightly sent lu off at once, with the offender escorted off by a gaggle of teammates.
In view of the circumstances, the referee felt it prudent to blow for half-time at the earliest possible time, and additionally called both captains over for a chat about discipline. It worked, and the game restarted with the tense atmosphere noticeably relaxed.
Ten-man Grilled would unexpectedly have the better of the exchanges as the Phoenixes' midfield began to tire, and it was down to former national U-20 goalie Lu Yunyu to keep out what was nearly a sure thing from
Tian Yonghang from the right side. There was no stopping Mohd Safri in the 61st minute, however, as the hotshot banged in his eighth in five league games, to stretch his lead atop the scorers' table to four goals.
The pace again died down only to speed up as the end drew near, with Tampines making one final push for a result. The openings they left resulted in near-misses by Madaini and Tian, who must be thinking of working on his finishing, but also allowed Abdul bin Abd Wahab a sniff of hope as he broke away with three minutes to go. To the dismay of the travelling fans,
Alex Fonseca stepped in with a perfect tackle.
There was time for Madaini to ping a free-kick onto the net, before
Lin Jungui came on for Fonseca as
Niculae Stanca sought to run down the clock.
