None For Yew
Forwards Make Amends
Grilled mollified their fans for their Cup exit by shooting to the top of the table, and this by directly overhauling previous leaders Yew Tea in a no-nonsense 6-1 dismantling. The front line, which had been so wasteful against Joker 9, stood right up today, and gave a tantalizing peek into their true capabilities with a total stormer.
They had a welcome boost before the match, as
Gene Filippone passed his fitness test with flying colours. The supporters' opinion had almost unanimously been that he was sorely needed against the yet-unbeaten Yew Tea, who other than their draw with The Void Deck, had been in complete control against their other opponents.
Shutout wins against Carpmael Rovers and saiNts United FC had them on a four game winning run, and with their Finn centre forward Lasse Koskela in sterling form, the home fans didn't dare to hope for too much... for all of two minutes.
Low Aik Jia took only that long to subtly admonish the coaching staff for leaving him out against Joker, as he dodged past Raúl Arévalo Morales with an unsettling turn of pace, then put it inside for
Mohd Safri bin Mohd Kassim to bang it in off the near post.
This was just the tonic that the team needed, and with the stands now firmly on their side, they could play as they were accustomed to. Yew Tea were not easily fazed, however, and held the Birds at bay for half an hour, minus some minutes dedicated to the treatment of goalie Ludwig Kilic and later Dimitar Baliev for hard knocks.
For his part, Koskela sowed doubt into the Birds' back two with his unorthodox movement patterns, but Yew Tea were not able to make the most of that. Instead, Grilled pressed their advantage, and Mohd Safri grabbed a second in the 31st minute, being fastest to react after
Woon Shun An's thunderbolt rang back off the crossbar.
If that was a pure poacher's goal, then
Tian Yonghang would certainly like a bit of that too - the skipper had been waiting for Jari Talamonti to stray forward all this while, and when he judged that the Yew Tea sweeper had overextended in the 34th minute, immediately set off.
Zhao Jing Wei released it to him as if on a hair-trigger, and Tian finished for a seemingly effortless 3-0.
Being three down was certainly a position that the visitors were not accustomed to, and Baliev made sure that his teammates knew it. This coincided with the Birds perhaps getting slightly complacent, and after
Zhu Changchun gave up a pointless foul on Omar Zreeqat, the Palestinean took it quickly. Koskela wowed with a behind-the-back flick that fooled Filippone, before lifting it over
Wong Tian Han.
It was a fitting way to end a very entertaining half, but this also meant that Grilled, despite their remaining two-goal cushion, could not quite rest yet. Yew Tea indeed showed no signs of letting up as they began the second period strongly, and even the famously tenacious
Wong Ping Shun was run ragged by Baliev and company down his flank.
Grilled retained the edge, though, and they would make the most of it in the 76th minute. The interplay between the forwards clicked perfectly then, and there was an inevitability to it when
Zhu Changchun breezed through unmarked, with all the Yew Tea defenders engaged. Kilic had no time to come out, and Zhu slipped the fourth by him calmly.
This was more than satisfactory for the home crowd, who were singing merrily along, when Tian made it all the better with a cruelly deflected headed goal three minutes from the end. Kilic appeared to have that one covered, only for a hassled Kévin Denis to throw himself in the way and spoil the save.
There would even be one more as Tian completed his 14th career hat-trick and opened up a two-goal lead in the Golden Boot race, as he accelerated past a spent Baliev in time added on; the sight of one captain celebrating wildly while the other stared at the ground summed up the game succintly, as was no doubt recognized by the pitchside photographers flashing away.
