Coursed Through
Djan's First Trick
Grilled Birds punched through the third round of the Cup with a 9-0 result against West Corsairs at the West Palace. Although Grilled have previously encountered a team with the same name some sixteen seasons back, the two are of no relation other than being based in Jurong.
Neither did this version provide much of a workout to the Birds, as their side of retirees showed much of the cunning that had enabled them to see off Elyasian and Liverpool-Torres in the previous rounds, but was of little use against battle-worn professionals. 55 year-old forward Mohd Zaidil bin Man, scorer of two against Liverpool-Torres, was certainly nippy for his age, but found more than his match in the serious
Walter Ross.
Shiya Shaahee was a complete mismatch for poor Bian Mingjiz, whose highest level played was for his secondary school team, on the right, and it was some wonder that it took ten minutes for somebody to connect on one of his many crosses, helped by referee Abba Ibn-Bashir being whistle-happy in calling fouls on the Corsairs defenders.
Djan Bacelar touched nobody going in then, though, and there would be no debating his neat opener.
The Birds couldn't lift themselves against the frankly unimpressive opposition, and wasted quite a few attacks with humdrum passes before Shaahee whacked one in low. Several Corsairs players were in the way, but none managed to get much on the incoming ball, and Sze Ma Zhi-Yong strained to clear only to deflect it to
Hilal Bakhtiar, who hardly knew what he was doing when he put it in.
Ling Fuquan showed both sides of his personality next, as he first drilled a smart cross inside for
Tian Yonghang to stretch his scoring streak to five games, before the far less comely facet came to the fore - Chai Zhu was covering when Ling went right through him from behind, a certain yellow card, duly given, that is his third in four matches. The former Chicken Wings defender is now out for the Young Tigers league match on Sunday.
This was followed by
Chow Ying Lee and
Djan Bacelar putting it in from some distance, as the Birds trooped into the tunnel with a five-nil lead. Bacelar would continue in the same vein, rounding off his first hat-trick for the Birds nearly twenty minutes into the second half with a stroked finish.
Liang Liyong, who came in for Ling for the second half, increased the lead to 7-0 in the next minute as
Mohd Safri bin Mohd Kassim perked up to put Liang through after drawing the central defence out.
Gleb Dorogan come on for a tenacious but limited
Leong Wan Kang for the last 20 minutes, and reminded all of his quality with his first goal for the Birds since his successful counterattack in a 2-1 loss to newbies are newbies five seasons back.
Hilal Bakhtiar had volleyed another in before that, which made it 9-0 when
Rashid bin Ahmad jogged in to stretch his legs in place of
Walter Ross.
