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| FIXTURE HISTORY |
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| Season 55 | W | 5 - 0 | Tournament (Group Phase) | | Season 55 | L | 5 - 2 | League | | Season 55 | D | 2 - 2 | League | | Season 51 | W | 6 - 4 | Tournament (Group Phase) | | Season 51 | L | 4 - 1 | Tournament (Group Phase) |
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Lopped For Seven
Super Safri
Grilled gave fair notice of their resolve to finally end their league drought with a 3-7 dismantling of Scallop Soccer Team on away ground, which can hardly be ignored by the other challengers. Club symbol
Mohd Safri bin Mohd Kassim was in the thick of things throughout, and although he had collected his tenth career hat-trick by half-time, his sheer passion for the game suggested that he would be around for awhile yet.
The Birds were the favourites after crushing Scallop 5-0 last week, all the more as coach Ignacio Guergue made just the one change from his side that day, with Alfredo Cardil in for the slightly-off Norwegian Kjetil Asbjørnsen at forward. Grilled too made one of their own,
Zhao Jing Wei gaining his starting spot back from
Clément Meyer following his recovery.
Scallop's match programme stated that they viewed the SG Masters defeat as a hiccup, and indeed they came out strongly, reminding the spectators of the swarming attack that had seen them lift the title last term. They were clearly stung after being shut out, and Moris Silvestri ensured that there would be no repeat with his excellent striker's instinct on Virgil Raita's uncatchable burst down the left.
The home fans lapped that up, but only for five minutes before the Birds were level. Mohd Safri, who had found his way past Claudio Fasani twice mere days ago, would again get the upper hand over the Italian keeper with a blistering strike from out of the blue. It might have taken the slightest of deflections off Antoine Clinch, but either way it was going in.
As the game went on, it became apparent that the increasingly-wet pitch was limiting Raita's effectiveness, all the more as he was matched against
Wong Ping Shun, who was far more willing to rough it out. Also, Wong had more than that in his arsenal, and his cheeky 37th minute faked shot on a free-kick went right to the open
Gene Filippone for a straightforward finish.
Scallop might yet have been confident of a recovery, but three goals in as many minutes would crush their belief -
Low Aik Jia would play a major role in the first two, scurrying as he did past Fulcini to supply Mohd Safri at the near post, before exploding forward on cue as Clinch cleared it against
Tian Yonghang to collect the loose ball.
Fulcini was still trying to get his men in line, when Mohd Safri forced a corner kick, and proceeded to thump it in with his head for 5-1. The home fans had hardly digested what had happened when Zhu nearly stacked on a sixth as the Scallop defence went to sleep, but he somehow found the woodwork with only a desperate Fasani to beat.
The entire stadium was deathly silent as Selton Gasparello finally blew for the break, and Guergue's body language said it all as he sat with his head in his hands as his players shuffled by. Scallop did get themselves together to an extent, though, but they were still hardly convincing, and their immature midfield allowed Low to blow right by before feeding
Chow Ying Lee in the 59th minute.
The diehards managed a half-hearted chant when former Charis FC recruit Cheong Tong Qiang displayed some fight by winning his aerial battle against
Ling Fuquan, albeit with a suspected handball, to score. Unfortunately, it didn't help much, as
Wong Ping Shun duly clobbered a seventh in barely two minutes later.
Scallop did have the last word as newcomer Josep Oriol Puell opened his goal account in the 74th minute with an excellent volleyed effort, as Chow fluffed a couple of golden opportunities, but
Djan Bacelar's early withdrawal of Zhao for Meyer said it all about how the match was ending.
