Into The Void
Safri Shagged
The Birds made matters unnecessarily hard for themselves, but eventually won out 3-2 against top flight arrivals The Void Deck. While the Jurong derby drew a disappointing forty thousand, in part due to the rain, it did not squelch the determination of Grilled to put an end to their atrocious league form.
With the visitors revealing little in the way of weaknesses in their big victory over Yew Tea last Sunday, it was left to Grilled to manufacture some of their own. To this end,
Niculae Stanca laid his wager with Mohd Safri bin Mohd Safri and
Chow Ying Lee told to stay up and keep Void's backline busy, and
Wong Ping Shun given the freedom to exchange with
Woon Shun An on the right, which proved to be key.
There was little that Void's Italian centreback pairing of Mario Loffredo and Antonio Gerardo Paoletti hadn't seen, however, and the Birds' attacking sequence tended to break down once one or the other imposed himself.
A single mistake undid all their good work in the 23rd minute, however, as Paoletti allowed
Tian Yonghang to steal a march on him. That bit of early positioning was crucial as it allowed Tian to receive the pass safely, before turning and drilling it past Jose Manuel Markmann.
The Birds piled it on without giving their visitors time to recover themselves, and managed to notch a second within the next minute. The Void Deck somehow neglected to take the initiative when Chow ran at them, and while Loffredo finally made the tackle after Chow had gone deep inside,
Abdul bin Jantan was ready and waiting to snap up the loose ball.
The player who made the most impact on the day was neither of these two, however, with
Wong Ping Shun presenting his largest contribution since his arrival. Imperious in the rain, few of the Void defenders had any idea how to slow the free-running midfielder down - certainly nobody in the 31st minute, when he rose unhindered to slam
Woon Shun An's cross into the back of the net with his forehead.
It could have gotten seriously ugly for Void, and they had to count their blessings that Mohd Safri's golden touch had deserted him completely. He missed high by inches, then had what appeared a sure thing magnificently saved by Markmann, and all this within the next four minutes.
This continued after the break, as the Grilled icon did everything but score. On another day, he would probably have enjoyed a hat-trick, but this time he could only shake his head in resignation, after a perfect lob bounced off the crossbar in the 54th minute. Markmann was again superb when Mohd Safri lit one at his bottom corner in the 72nd minute, raising exclamations from the crowd.
Void were too good not to stage a reprisal after all that, and they pulled one back in the 79th minute from a corner. Israeli wingback Ade Brown dropped it right on the head of his counterpart on the opposite wing, and Iván Aldana angled it across
Wong Tian Han to ruin his clean sheet.
Grilled soon had more worries of their own, as Rudolf Harciník got Void back to within a goal after bursting through on the right.
Ling Fuquan, who together with Tian had already been booked, was unwilling to risk a suspension, and his measured challenge was skipped confidently by Harcinik.
Tian's failure to reopen the gap, again courtesy of Markmann's goalkeeping skill, kept it tense until the final whistle, as The Void Deck pressed for the equaliser, which fortunately for the hosts, never came.
