Fly Flee
Lin Off
Amateur Jurong side Flyfoe were this season's first-round cannon fodder for the Birds, who barely exerted themselves in their double-digit dismantling of the plucky hosts. The mismatch was done after twenty minutes, with Grilled having plundered four by then, and the bigger question was how none of the forwards managed to get a hat-trick by the end.
Flyfoe had subsisted on as a community outfit after their main sponsor pulled out some eight years ago, and while their players certainly knew each other inside-out, they simply did not have the legs to pose a threat. With that realisation, they started a compact 4-4-2, with 53 year-old team star Nor Zeland bin Sarman tasked with holding it up for as long as he could.
As plans go, this was not a bad one, but as they no doubt discovered after Mohd Safri and
Chow Ying Lee just blew past the central defence after the barest of gaps in the 9th and 14th minutes, Flyfoe just did not have the personnel to keep it up. Mohd Safri then upped it to 3-0 with a playground trick that even the home fans had to grudgingly acknowledge, before
Zhao Jing Wei let fly from the foot of the box to ram the disparity home.
Flyfoe captain Chia Eng Wee figured that they might as well have some fun at this point, and the hosts assembled a couple of admirable attempts at going forward. Of course, their defence suffered for it, and
Tian Yonghang and
Woon Shun An profited from sharp replies down the flanks. The returning
Zhao Jing Wei got a seventh from Chow's tight pass between two defenders, as the teams strolled off for half-time in a relaxed manner.
The second half saw Flyfoe goalie Toh Chun Aik deny Tian multiple times, as the Grilled captain went on his ill-fated search for a hat-trick. It looked a near-certainty after his powerful goal six minutes after the restart, but Toh then got his act together, and his fingertip save in the 73rd minute brought the gallery to its feet.
Zhu Changchun did make it impossible for Toh with his delightful lob two minutes later, before a booking for a totally uncalled-for trip on Lu Kay Beng.
Wong Ping Shun then rang up the long-awaited tenth goal by calmly shuffling it past Toh, before the hardworking Lin Zubin was dismissed for his second yellow of the game.
