Apostate Aced
Chhong Cannon
The Birds warmed up for the new season with a friendly at full strength against Apostate, the third between the sides, and the first which Grilled host. The end result remained a resounding victory for Grilled, as the visitors steadily lost steam.
Apostate had finished in mid-table in III.10, which didn't go too far in inspiring them to go beyond themselves against Grilled, who deservedly went two up after half an hour through Tuan-Mu and Attimarad.
Winger Hu Chhong then got one back for Apostate with the pick of the night, a wickedly breaking gem from near the half-way line. Unfortunately, that would count as just one goal, exactly the same as Kek-Tjiang's bread-and-butter finish in the 38th minute, which was followed by similarly routine strikes from Attimarad and Stanton.
With Hobson absent, there was no once to challenge Reed for the free-kick in the 60th minute, which the American successfully lifted over the wall and past a disbelieving Azrul Hisyam. Attimarad then followed in Hobson and Chen's footsteps by completing a hat-trick against Apostate, but not before the Apostate goalie had denied a magnificent lob from him.
That was it as far as goals were concerned, and Zhou Ngoc-Thanh ran into a bit of knee trouble before Mai Chiah-Jen copped the only yellow card of the game for kicking Reed.
