Second In Hand
Yonghang Leads Way
The unavailability of
Mohd Safri bin Mohd Kassim had next to no impact on Grilled's mission in the end, as deep-lying forward
Tian Yonghang filled his boots with admirable ease. The unstoppable 26 year-old also bagged for the third match in succession, and is now one game away from defending his league Golden Boot, with closest challenger Huang Kangyan suspended.
There was an expectation in some quarters that this would finally be former Youth Player of the Season
Leong Wan Kang's turn to get his maiden league start, after a succession of good friendly showings, but
Niculae Stanca in the end went for the safer option of a 3-5-2, putting the next-generation defence of
Rashid bin Ahmad,
Ling Fuquan and
Liang Liyong together at last. Going by how
Edmund Kryus enjoyed his first clean sheet in twelve outings, this experiment may well be repeated.
That said, the Spartans have not found much joy against the Birds, with their two most recent meetings ending 3-0 and 4-0 to Grilled, with their best result in this fixture being the pulsating five-all draw at The Kherubim last season. While veteran German striker Swen Gemeinhardt has gone about his duties with his usual efficiency, goals have otherwise not been easy to find. First-choice midfielders Shaiful Bahri bin Ahmad Rosdi, Lin Lai Pin and Sergio Vázquez were surprise omissions from the starting lineup, which had Zhang Kian Wen skippering the side instead.
Grilled weren't about to question their opponents' tactical decisions, though, and moreover they still had Dutch defender Reinout van der Meer to contend with. There was a suggestion of a dream start when
lu Zunwen blew in straight through from the left in just the second minute, but Mok Kim Sze was quick off the blocks to take it off his feet.
The Spartans were not looking for too much, and thus succeeded in frustrating the Birds' reduced frontline throughout the first half. Of the remaining pair, Chow was the more interested in taking it to them, but the closest he would come would be a cracker of a shot that covered the length of the penalty area before spinning off the crossbar.
For all that, Grilled were very firmly in charge, at least going by possession statistics, and given all the chances that the midfield created, surely at least one had to go in. The fans were indeed satisfied when
Zhao Jing Wei slid a risky through ball to
Tian Yonghang, with van der Meer a fraction too late to make the block, and Tian obligingly held off Henning Tolloch to make it happen.
There were concerns about
Ling Fuquan being on two yellows before the game, as any infraction would see him miss the JUtd clash, but it turned out that he would miss it for another reason. The unfortunate Ling was tailing Gemeinhardt when big Belgian Joachim November raced full tilt into him while looking over his shoulder for the pass, and landed on the fallen Grilled man's forearm for good measure.
With Ling clearly in distress,
Qassem Madaini was pressed into another appearance, while
Abdul bin Jantan too soon went off for
Shiya Shaahee. The Maldives winger lent voice to his discontent as he immediately began owning the right flank, looping cross after cross into promising positions, until
Chow Ying Lee could do no less than strike one of them in to make sure.
Trusty Håkan Dalstål had left due to a battered knee by then, and new arrival Wang Kwang Long made for a rather less convincing defender, encouraging the Birds to attack in droves. Madaini sent one wide, Leong came in for Chow, and finally
Rashid bin Ahmad scored for a second consecutive start with Shaahee again the provider.