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FIXTURE HISTORY |
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Season 53 | W | 5 - 0 | Friendly | Season 51 | L | 2 - 6 | Tournament (Playoffs) |
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Kings Reign
Complete Collapse
The re-established All The King Men made history today as they dealt Grilled one of their harshest-ever Cup defeats, the 7-0 trouncing matching the all-time record held by FC TerriFic 19 seasons ago. If that disaster scarred the psyche of Birds supporters for a generation, this one looks to be having the same impact, as administrators had to shut down the club's online forums temporarily in the aftermath.
The fans knew, definitely, that the team was going through a bad patch, but what they hadn't expected was just how bad it was; compounded with the fact that they simply didn't accord ATKM proper respect, despite them breaking a defensively-oriented Robbie Football Club last Wednesday, Grilled would learn a very bitter lesson indeed.
The selection was far from inspired - third-stringer
Remco van der Ban was entrusted with central defence, while creaking oldies
Che Harun bin Sabtu and
Domenik Bögengang led the line, but only in the most generous sense of the word. It would have been a respectable tandem ten years ago, but the erstwhile legends' stars had long since dimmed.
Facing them was a very motivated ATKM eleven led out by hometown hero Chung Yao Jia before the fully-packed Kingsmen Stadium, and while on paper the Birds should have been able to put up a decent fight, it simply all went to pieces after twenty minutes.
Then, Right winger Kwok Wan Chao flipped it past
Wong Tian Han after a drive down the other flank by Ng Jin Puay, and after Remco managed to lose it to Guan Chee Kang under almost no pressure, it was evident that the gig was up for the Birds.
It could have been more forgivable had they put up any semblance of a struggle, but with
Rinor Isufi totally clueless in the middle, and
Mohd Safri bin Mohd Kassim alternating between fruitless chasing and quiet stewing, it was a lost cause.
Tian Yonghang tried to rally his teammates, but even he himself could hardly put a foot right.
ATKM even had the luxury of spurning a couple of excellent chances of their own, but still managed to enter half-time three up. Nicola Gabbi, like Arijit Saraf before him, had been denied by some inspired goalkeeping, but he would supply Vítor Chaves from the corner that he won.
Grilled did have
Woon Shun An on the bench, but he would not see play as a stony-faced Luis Alcántara persevered with his picked warriors... who were however doing very little fighting. It was true though that the hosts had a slice of luck on their side, as when Gabbi's wild swing happened to send the ball careening right into the far corner, five minutes after the restart.
The Birds were hardly even trying by now, and the away stands that were populated by glum supporters now had an air of morbin fascination about it. Indeed, there were some ironic cheers as Gabbi followed his goal up with another one, as Remco got precious little support from his rather more seasoned colleagues.
There was more of the same when Guan Chee Kang put it in from a goalmouth melee for 6-0, and when Gabbi duly completed his hat-trick with twenty minutes to go, the only question was whether ATKM would set a new record.
They didn't in the end, but they certainly had inflicted enough pain on the Birds to last the season.