Return Slash
Lim Unleashed
The Birds were hacked out of the air once more by Saraca Swashbucklers, who have gotten the knack of defeating Mohd Safri and company at their home ground down to a fine art. All the pre-game bluster, as well as the ceremony that accompanied
Wong Ping Shun's big debut, dissipated rapidly after a dull first half-an-hour.
It turned out that Grilled's inability to get stuck in had been down to Saraca's near-flawless coverage, which has led them to eleven wins on the trot. The back three of Pere Jordi Paniagua, Artur de Nadal and Yann Hernandez were more than a match individually for the Birds' forwards, with Yann looking outright cheap at his quoted value of S$3.5 million, given how he contained
Chow Ying Lee.
While it was a fair struggle in the home side's half, there were few positives that could be said about the Grilled defence at the other end. Few anticipated
Hovaness Noubaryan being started over
Edmund Kryus on this occasion, but frankly it would have made no difference, with how the Grilled players left each other hung out to dry whenever they were required to backtrack.
The wings were particularly vulnerable, and Saraca's dual winger-wingback partnerships had a field day stretching the Birds. New arrival Wong was one of the more determined chasers, but he could do nothing at all when Faroese wide man Thomas Hammer streaked up the left, and drilled a low pass straight through an empty Grilled penalty area. Former national U-20 midfielder Lim Wei Feng came right on time to put it beyond Noubaryan.
Hammer wasn't finished, as he smashed right through the very next minute to put his side 2-0 up. That had the Sanctuary singing at the top of their voices, and Stanca with his head in his arms. The disappointed coach had barely begun to yell at his men, when the left side fell completely apart once more, leaving Yonathan van Ysselsteyn with a simple finish, with Noubaryan going to ground too soon.
There was little for it but to attack, a situation that Grilled have found themselves in painfully all too often. They were at least passable at that, and with all the desperation that they could muster, they forced a mass confrontation in the Saraca box, which ended with Chow shoving the ball into the net. He then raced to fetch it back to the centre circle, but that was the end of Grilled's inspiration for the half.
With few options on the bench, all Stanca could do was to swop Wong and Woon about, in hopes that this would stay the hosts for a bit. It didn't quite work, and quite possibly confused his own team more, going by how Wardi Afi strode through the middle unmolested. Noubaryan relieved his glory days this time, though, as he sprang across goal to ward off Afi's ripping strike.
Lim then got his third goal against Grilled in two meetings, as he raced right by the aging
Qassem Madaini slightly embarassingly easy in the 59th minute. The Saudi ex-international has not looked convincing chasing after lads little more than half his age in recent months, and this performance might well signal the end of his Grilled career, if some of the fans have their way.
Grilled plugged away, but must have realised that it was not going to happen, after Mohd Safri and Tian had excellent efforts saved by impeccable Indonesian keeper Zulfahmi Sandy. Mohd Safri had been riled up enough to lose his cool and ram Yann Hernandez down, and somehow stayed on with a booking; Hernandez was not so fortunate, and was soon replaced by the transfer-listed Bùi Thắng Cảnh.
Yap Chin Wai scored a late fifth, once more from the left, but Grilled had long since given up by then.
