Not Bullish
Paullin Middle
In a home friendly staged for Grilled's men to receive an end of season lap of honour, they held the match in a vise-like grip but still only managed to register a small 2-1 win over Malta Division Four leaders Roli Red Bulls, who had won five straight league games.
Alcántara again experimented with Spirig's unpredictability on the right flank, returning
Lorenz Paullin to central midfield where he displayed a sensible holding game when required. Spirig for his part found the Bull's left wingback Christopher Inglott a little more naive than most defenders he had come up against, as expected with Inglott only 18. He had time to gauge his cross to Chiew-Yen in the six-yard box, but Chiew-Yen glanced it wide.
Grilled were unbalanced as most of their attacks went through Spirig, but a hard push by Olaru caught the defence unawares. Before being tackled, Olaru squared the ball the Han Kok who one-touched it to Hjortlind. Hjortlind was by then level with the last man, and simply kept running at full pace to bury a sure goal.
Bull's Warren Filletti exposed Spirig on one of his late runs, and brought the ball up to the Grilled endline before new signing
Marcus Liehner got in his way and conceded a corner kick. Swiss central midfielder Olivier Duthoit bent in a perplexing inswinger that Bao-Tam fumbled under heavy pressure, and strong Spanish forward Jaume Vallmitjà held off a couple of men to prod an equaliser in.
There were high hopes for Han Kok when he manufactured a one-on-one with a deft turn with his back to goal, but Wilfred Alessandro streaked in from the right and put him off enough to knock his chip away from the net. Han Kok stood still for some seconds after that failure.
Hjortlind received a warranted caution when he got up close and personal with Dane of Vietnamese descent, Nhan Cam Ha. Spirig then motored his way down wide and supplied a wonderfully paced through ball to Borup, who fell while trying to round Clifford Baldacchino.
Baldacchino thought he had just made a superb save, but was infuriated when Kui Laiqing whistled for a spot kick. He had to be held back by teammates from approaching the referee. Borup calmly watched the drama unfold, then stood up and picked out the bottom left corner from the spot.
