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| FIXTURE HISTORY |
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| Season 22 | W | 1 - 3 | Qualification |
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Pool Left Behind
Low Gets Going
Low Aik Jia became only the eleventh Grilled player ever to strike twice on his competitive debut, as he hit the ground running with a goal in either half, if admittedly against less than top-drawer opposition.
Mohd Safri bin Mohd Kassim's red card made it an easy decision for Luis Alcántara to put the exciting new Number Eight in the thick of things, and Low didn't need a second prompting.
That said, the Red Phoenixes had more history than many realised, being through a winding trail of acquisitions a successor side of former national cup winners FC Tenochtitlán, whom Grilled had edged to earn their first run in the S-League. However, in its current incarnation as a recreational team, albeit one that had crushed sentinel 8-1 in their last Cup game, they were not going to be competitive against a fairly good Birds selection.
Djan Bacelar, who had endured such a frustrating outing last Wednesday, was relieved to put that behind him with a poached effort in the 19th minute, thanks to
Ling Fuquan running around on the left.
Rashid bin Ahmad duly creamed in a second, but it was clear when
Low Aik Jia got his, that the supporters only really wanted to see one player score.
Heartily urged on by the packed away stands, Low teased the fans with glimpses of his almost supernatural acceleration, with a couple of exchanges with reigning Grilled speed king
Chow Ying Lee making their markers look like they were standing still. Of course, breaking through the depth of the LeewuPool defence was not all that straightforward, and Low had to depend on Bacelar to open it up for him before nipping in with a confident grounder.
That settled, Grilled comfortably toyed with the ball in midfield, with
Colby Awyong breaking up the relative monotony with a fine dash in time with
Tian Yonghang's release through the middle.
Tian turned it up for the second half, kicking it off with a sneaky little tap-in for 5-0. Low, who had been heavily involved throughout, kept the mood buoyant for the travellers as he closed in on a poor touch by Zhang Kunren frighteningly quickly. Most would have believed that the nearly ten metres between them was safety enough, but Low rubbished such thoughts as he flashed by and hammered it in.
Pompeo Bellamoli and Tian then added to the tally after more conventional build-ups, as the big LeewuPool defenders looked positively lost against attackers who kept it on the ground.
Djan Bacelar cheekily embarassed captain Hong Rongwei with a crossover dribble that left Hong leaning over to the wrong side, but it was so well-executed that even some of the home fans saw the beauty in it.
There was much anticipation on whether Low would become only the third Grilled man to grab a debut hat-trick, the last of those being Ângelo Cunha Simões, but it was
Tian Yonghang who would be the milestone-setter of the day. With fourteen minutes remaining, he flighted a delicate chip over Fu How How, which made him only the eighth Grilled player to reach a hundred goals for the club.
