Fallen At Last Hurdle
While Grilled might have improved on their third-place finishes of the previous two seasons, and achieved by some distance their best point total in II.2 in this stay, it was evident that this was not what the players were looking for judging by how they sank to the mud after the final whistle.
Even a first scoring title for
Mohd Safri bin Mohd Kassim was scant consolation for the up-and-coming striker. "I would gladly exchange this - and the next ten that I get - for the league trophy." Mohd Safri said. "There's just no comparism."
Responding to reports of consternation in the dressing room, with
Chow Ying Lee and
Qassem Madaini said to have taken their misses especially hard, head coach
Niculae Stanca could only comfort his men with words.
"Actually, they've easily exceeded expectations, and probably would have secured the title at a gallop in some other season, or some other Division Two league. It's just that heimu XI raised their standards at the same time, credit to them."
With jafjfqaoi of II.4 going down to a shock 0-4 defeat to QUT FC, heimu XI will return to the S-League after 22 long seasons, together with Chelsea Pioneer.
The other matches were all won by four-goal margins, with Rapala FC, JUtd and Siegmund United the victors. Interestingly, the identical 1-5 margins suffered by SpartanSG and CharlesCheesePie will ensure that the latter keep their qualification match spot, while Phantasm Hotspurs will have to follow Siegmund down after their defeat.
