Heat Phanned Up
Ten Men Triumph
The Birds survived a disastrous first twenty minutes to snare a sixth consecutive win, as their ten men breached Phantasm's defences five times to hang on to Rapala FC's coattails. Then again, the confusion at the beginning could have been predicted, with Austrian defender
Walter Ross sensationally pulling on the gloves in the absence of
Dexter Stacey, with
Hovaness Noubaryan benched following his disastrous tournament outing.
The visitors might have taken offence at this apparent underestimation of their abilities, as Grilled put their faith in dispersing attacks before they approached the unusually-dressed Ross. This was however never going to be easy with Hotspurs having run the Birds close in their two meetings thus far, and former national and Joker 9 midfielder Song Kang Ho was a real terror as he made the center his own.
While Grilled's defence were on top of their game, Song's frequent plotting was too much for them to ward off indefinitely, and new signing Liang Cigui linked up well in the 18th minute to receive the ball on his good right foot, and he then finished with a stiff strike that Ross did make a fair attempt at saving.
That seemed to have predicated a complete collapse as
Lin Jungui, who had done so well against JUtd last Sunday, made the home fans bury their collective heads in their hands with a mad headbutt at Soon Liang How's head, after Soon had apparently bumped into him. While Lin missed, his intent was obvious, and referee Francesco Parisi immediately went for the red card.
Niculae Stanca was fuming but held his hand, and the remaining players responded by significantly upping their game. The momentum slowly but surely shifted over to the men in green, which cumulated in a flurry of action towards the end of the half.
Although
Chow Ying Lee went narrowly wide in the 36th minute, it was a harbinger of things to come, as
Mohd Safri bin Mohd Kassim followed up with some quick thinking to direct the ball into Ahmad Fuad bin Mohamed's net with his heel. Chow then uncharacteristically missed again, but
Tian Yonghang made it up with a splendid raid past two markers to put Grilled ahead.
It was then Phantasm's turn to lose personnel, with Hong Tinghan not able to recover from a dead leg suffered from being sandwiched in a collision. Head coach Aznan bin Mohamad, currently holding a dual assignment with the national squad, was decisive in getting Long Ruokang on.
Long was more than an able replacement, but was unable to affect the match much by himself, and Grilled's dominance on home ground persisted after the interval. Chow appeared cursed as he dug wildly wide after being brilliantly picked out by
Shiya Shaahee, but the right winger was not discouraged, and soon picked up the second assist of his night, with a low altitude cross thundered down and past the line by
lu Zunwen.
Next to go was
Woon Shun An, who clutched at his thigh after an accident, necessitating
Alex Fonseca's appearance. Phantasm took it as a sign to press hard, and after Long had an effort cleared off the line after hitting the underside of the crossbar, Aznan rolled the dice with Ng How Loong on with instructions to force the pace in midfield.
While it was debatable whether Ng succeeded, what was certain was that Noubaryan would end up taking to the field, after Ross fell heavily on one leg claiming a high ball. Noubaryan would however not see out the match, as he then overstretched himself in hastening to make a clearance.
With no other options,
Ling Fuquan looked justifiably apprehensive as he became the third Grilled player to don the goalkeeper's purple shirt for the match, but thankfully stayed healthy as
Zhu Changchun and Mohd Safri cemented victory at the other end.
