Null Return
Shooting Blanks
Grilled's aspirations took a huge mid-season blow once again, as they were held to a nil-all draw at The Cooking Pot by a determined All Stars Team.
Mohd Safri bin Mohd Kassim was restored to the starting lineup and had a couple of good moments, but the sheer grit on display from the visitors, coupled with a tiny dash of luck, ensured that the Birds would not get the three points.
Stars were for their part buoyant after running rampant over the rebuilding Young Tigers in their home-and-away series, with it ending 12-0 on aggregate. With it back to serious business against the Birds, Stars shuffled their lineup back to a 3-5-2, with skipper Costinel Puşcaşu leading by example by latching himself to
Wong Ping Shun from kickoff.
The near 65000 spectators remained quietly confident even as the visitors worked their tails off, making the Grilled midfield look uncomfortable for once at The Cooking Pot. It was of course not nearly enough to shut them down completely, and
Tian Yonghang's deft turn in the eighth minute led to Andrei Udrică bringing him down.
To the fans' consternation, referee Juan Luis Ferrando kept his cards in his pocket despite it being a cynical challenge, but at least they had
Wong Ping Shun lining up the free-kick to look forward to. The Stars wall stood their ground as Wong thundered it at them, however, and all it resulted in was Adam Wites feeling light-headed for a bit.
It wasn't too much to be concerned about as the Birds' production line kept rolling, and their forwards were not exactly short of chances around the Stars penalty area. Wong was actively involved in most of those moves, with the pick of them probably a clever cross to
Chow Ying Lee in the 20th minute, which the latter unfortunately snatched at.
Wong himself had a fair crack at goal after
Low Aik Jia switched flanks, but he found himself nicking it narrowly wide of Harald Colman's left post. All Stars Team then nearly dealt the ultimate sucker punch when Puşcaşu robbed Wong and kickstarted a raid down the left flank, but Erlantz Garrido Ochando arrived a second too slow to meet his final ball.
As Stars kept up their workrate in the second half, the stands began to get restless, which was to be expected as the last home goalless draw had come nine seasons before, against ArseVikings. While Mohd Safri was an easy scapegoat, the truth was that Grilled were not exactly doing much wrong, given the circumstances.
If there was a cause, it would be the lack of that extra cutting edge, but in truth the Birds had opportunities enough to take the game. An example was Chow's sprint right through the Stars defence in the 56th minute, which he disappointingly followed up with a tame effort right at Colman.
It came to a boil for
Low Aik Jia in the 70th minute, when the impetuous young winger was fortunate not to be dismissed for a ill-tempered tackle on Jacenty Skrzypski. That only steeled Stars' dedication to leaving with something, and the last twenty minutes saw the teams run each other into the ground fruitlessly.