Gladiators Glory
Mirga Versus Reed
Polish visitors gladiatorzy got the better of the Birds in an entertaining encounter at Gamma Stadium, despite the less than ideal weather.
Weng Seng-Huat's slip turned out to be lucky for Grilled as the visitors mucked up the free-kick, allowing out-of-favour
Miguel Reed to move in and poach the opener.
The American's elation turned to disgust as the Grilled defence were given the runaround by Romanian winger Jean Constantinescu, who picked striker Ferdynand Mirga out with a curling pass from twenty metres, quite a feat in the swirling rain. Mirga lived up to expectations by flinging his head at the ball and getting it past Huel-sheng.
Mirga would again score in the very next minute, as he challenged
Weng Seng-Huat, who decided to back away and immediately regretted it as Mirga swung a right-footed rocket between him and Huel-sheng, who didn't even move. Reed was yelling at his defence at that, which prompted
Chai Yew-Hoe to throw himself into a few questionable challenges and get himself booked.
Peter Magnusson fluffed his second-half chance, before Reed showed why he is tolerated if not especially well-liked when he drilled a Hobsonesque drive into the top corner from outside the box. He brushed off Yunos' attempt to celebrate with him, which will further cast him as a villian in the Grilled fans' eyes.
It then perhaps brought some satisfaction when Mirga overshadowed Reed with the winning goal and a hat-trick in the 56th minute, after he repeated his second goal with a wonderful strike into the roof of the net.
Gao Seng-kar brought Boleslaw Sadczuk down with a ill-timed tackle, though thankfully not doing much damage to the Polish midfielder, while Yunos did his best but only managed another yellow card in trying to hurry up play.
