Holland Fall Out
Tang Back With A Bang
The Birds overcame an uncertain start to eventually put away plucky Division Four Holland United, whose Cup run, built on the backs of XxOwNaGexX FC and Shaolin Travellers, was ended. 17 year-old
Pompeo Bellamoli kept his place alongside
Tang Hengcai, and the two are in line for more gametime after a delightful combined five-goal haul.
The Hollanders, who had demolished the Travellers led by clever forward Qiu Yue-Weng, adopted a far more conservative attitude towards Grilled and kept the first half-hour near-completely uneventful. As with Clementi the week before, they clearly felt that simplifying things was their best hope, and the young Birds might have cracked had not
Mayur Gudivada been carelessly brought down by Mohd Zakaria bin Che Mat in the 34th.
The Indian midfielder picked himself up and powered a quick free-kick into space as Zakaria was being booked, inviting
Tang Hengcai to get onto it, which he did, and proceeded to score from. Four minutes later,
Pompeo Bellamoli broke through on the other flank to double the lead.
While the goals have been flowing for these two youngsters, one has to sympathize with
Shiya Shaahee, who has alternated between unselfishly patrolling the sidelines and having his shots go awry. He however did manage to rack up a second yellow in as many starts for crudely hacking at former teacher Shen Tse-Wei. Shen decided that he had had enough, and came off for Xiao Xiang-Hui.
Otherwise, Shaahee had been a model citizen, and he did create another for Bellamoli with a searching crossfield pass. The Italian lad didn't break stride as he ran onto it, and inadvertently caused another substitution after Koo Xing-Peng gashed his head against a teammate's shoulder trying to intercept.
Grilled took their time to get restarted, with
Tang Hengcai disappointed in the 47th minute after a flashy dribble and strike was cleared off the line. Gudivada, who had been lively on the right, was again caught late, but he shook it off to scramble in a fourth right after a downcast Shaahee was taken off for
Paolo Iten.
The next ten minutes were good to the Birds, as Holland finally slackened off, and Tang completed his first career hat-trick after recording six braces. A headed corner was swiftly followed by a spirited long shot, with a straightforward sidefoot from Bakhtiar in between, leaving no doubt in the spectators' minds that Tang deserved the Man of the Match accolades.
