V-ictory Road
Safri's Back
Grilled's three strikers carried their friendly return over to the league, as they each struck one to keep up the pace in the title chase. Hosts V-ATPase for their part went toe-to-toe in the first half, only to wilt in the second as the Birds' continued aggression finally wore them down.
Head coach Neil Too, a rare one-club man whose career began as a defender with V-ATPase, decided to stay with his strongest eleven against Grilled despite it being unable to contain The Void Deck last week. While their emphasis on wingback-supported attacks has not been overly successful this term, it can be mesmerising when it does come off, and Adam Chiriac made a few hearts flutter with his raids down the right early on.
This could be partly attributed to
Clément Meyer's discomfiture, after the French newcomer was roped in as a wide man, with
Wong Ping Shun apparently rested a precaution, being already on two yellows. Meyer kept finding himself involuntarily drawn inside, which led him to neglect his covering duties more than once, and thus to a 23rd minute booking for a desperate taking down of Stig Brix.
Meyer did grow into his role, and Grilled began to piece some promising moves together. Chiriac gifted them their first good chance with a questionable pass across defence to Carles Pau, who compounded the error by allowing it to run across him. This was an open invitation for
Chow Ying Lee to surge forward for it, but the current league top-scorer then tripped himself up trying to outfox Lau Teck Lee.
After some rough-and-tumble in midfield that saw Marian Gano protest at his treatment from
Zhao Jing Wei, Grilled opened the scoring.
Low Aik Jia dribbed his way to the center before dropping it off for
Mohd Safri bin Mohd Kassim, who latched onto the pass without a hitch before depositing it past Lau for his first goal in six starts.
His relief at announcing his return from a spate of truly horrendous form was palpable, but the Birds' delight didn't last too long. After a close miss from Zhao, the hosts pushed up their underutilised left flank, and Thomas Fröer lashed it across the penalty area for Chiriac to shoot.
Wong Tian Han seemed to have it covered, only for the ball to deflect heavily off
Gene Filippone's attempted block and sail into the opposite end of goal.
The V-ATPase supporters were happy enough at their team going into half-time level, and they had little to complain about for the next half-hour as the home side continued matching Grilled step-for-step. A draw was beginning to look like a likely result, and with their forwards Vinício Fonseca and Henri Haapaniemi being full of ideas, more than that was not out of the question.
Tian Yonghang sent it all crashing down to earth, though, after he connected with a stunning volley in the 74th minute; Low had banged the cross in after Iranian leftback Rambod Baroutiha got himself tied up in attack. This was all too much to take for Chiriac, who came over too late to stop Tian's shot, and the temperamental Romanian was given an official caution for kicking the ball away from Chow, who had come to retrieve it.
The setback took much of the wind out of V-ATPase's sails, and they immediately let in a third, to audible dismay from the dugout. Neil Too made his disgust clear as his players milled aimlessly about as the Birds advanced with intent down the middle, and Meyer made his defensive sufferings worth it as he found the target with a great right-footed curler.
With the points all but wrapped up, Tian unleashed his instincts and brushed the woodwork twice in the closing minutes, while Chow buffed his season tally with a poacher's goal in the 86th minute, following a mix-up between Pau and his goalie.
Rashid bin Ahmad and
Abdul bin Jantan came on late, but more as observers than anything.
