Phantasm Chowed Down
Chase Still On
Fresh off a hat-trick against Liverpool Football Club (1892) on Wednesday, the sizzling-hot
Chow Ying Lee did it again against Phantasm Hotspurs to keep Grilled on the tail of leaders Siegmund United. The visitors kept much the same lineup that had the Birds playing catch-up, with Lo Jing Min again leading his side out, after what can be described as a promising return to Division Two.
Grilled sprung a minor surprise as they fielded
Paolo Iten and
Shiya Shaahee together on the wings, though that was not completely out of the question, with regular left-sided midfielder
Seytek Djekshenkulov suspended.
Woon Shun An made his first appearance between Iten and Changchun in the middle, with
Abdul bin Jantan benched and
Alex Fonseca supporting from defence.
Phantasm have established themselves solidly in the middle of the table after starting with three draws, after which they have alternated between wins, losses and draws with regularity, never repeating the same result over two weekends. This was a good omen for Grilled given that Phantasm had just beaten Red Freaking Chillies, but the balance in the visiting side meant that little early headway was made.
The breakthrough came after twenty minutes, as Shaahee capitalised on a misunderstanding between Quek Pin Puay and Goral Naik to break free down the touchline. Cutting inside, the Maldivian former youth international forced the Phantasm backline to spread, before lifting in a ball that
Chow Ying Lee headed in with good fundamentals.
Hotspurs' penchant for keeping things all square nearly came to the fore immediately, as Soon Liang How sent a breathtaking free-kick around the wall and nearly inside the post. It would be Chow again after that, as his swiftness got him past Lo Jing Min in a duel of two local U-20 representatives, and his left foot then pegged it past Ahmad Fuad bin Mohamed for 2-0.
Phantasm held on to half-time without further damage done, and they came out of the tunnel raring to go. The turnaround in spirit soon resulted in Hong Tinghan converting Song Kang Ho's contribution from the right. The former national and Joker 9 star nearly got another assist within five minutes, but Hong's effort was warded off by
Dexter Stacey this time.
The Hotspurs were on a high with Ahmad Fuad having just pulled off an excellent save from
Tian Yonghang, but referee Matthieu Bibault then put himself in the spotlight with an overeager penalty call. Woon stumbled on the edge of the penalty area under slight pressure from Lo, and was about to get on with it when Neel stopped the game.
Paolo Iten did the business unemotionally with a textbook strike low and in the corner.
That marked the end of the game for a stony-faced Lo, as Phantasm coach Md Ali bin Salman finally had enough, and took him off for Cai Yunhan, former Changi Genius man who arrived barely a week ago. Lo might have had mixed feelings as his side immediately rallied, Gwee Ming Kong surging forward and taking Heng Kim Ting's finely-tuned cross on the fly to reduce yet again.
For all that, it would be all about Chow this day, as he wove his way through Hotspurs' central defence to complete his sixth professional hat-trick. It was then a battle of wits as
Lin Jungui's arrival in defence was countered by Haji Abdullah bin Ariffin being thrown on by the visitors to try and find a way back, with Long Ruokang following, but Grilled would ride the 4-2 win out without issues.
