Cloud 0 - 10 Grilled Birds
On Cloud Ten
Triple Threats
The Birds' forward line brushed aside talk of its impending decline with empathic individual hat-tricks against Division Four side Cloud today. Previously affiliated with Jurong rising stars Joash, who had just gotten a taste of the second division, Cloud had fallen on hard times since breaking away, and their lineup of neighbourhood hopefuls could not have been expected to seriously test Grilled's stars.
Led by 31 year-old medical technician Adam Yam, the Cloud representatives appeared only too willing to play their part in Grilled's pre-season warm-up, and their orthodox 4-4-2 affirmed a resolution towards playing their normal game. This worked about as well as could reasonably be expected, and
Chow Ying Lee duly blew past national serviceman Xavier Pon to open up.
Chow would register his tenth career hat-trick with the Birds by the 21st minute, batting in a fumbled save by Sng Meng Dong off
Rashid bin Ahmad the minute after, before letting rip a screamer in mid-dribble. Adam Yam had an incredible opportunity to write himself into club history after
Hilal Bakhtiar lost sight of the ball completely, but quailed against the looming figure of
Wong Tian Han.
Rinor Isufi then took over turning on the afterburners, and he would float one over Sng, before slashing through the middle and laying it off for
Mohd Safri bin Mohd Kassim on 31 minutes. Sixteen seasons in the game hadn't seemed to have taken the excitement of scoring away from Mohd Safri, freshly turned 34, as he wheeled away in undisguised exhilaration.
This was in play again right after the break, as Mohd Safri joined Chow in completing a treble. A far better defence than Cloud had would have had nothing on the mind-boggling overhead effort he pulled off to get his second, though the third was an entirely run-of-the-mill follow-on to a through ball. Of course, that would be the bread and butter of any professional striker, and a fitting cap to any hat-trick.
Cloud were able to catch a breather after that for a stretch, as Grilled dialled back on attacking a little, but they were undone again after Lim Lee Wee caught Mohd Safri in the penalty area after 76 minutes.
Rinor Isufi slid that one in at the right-hand post, and was called to duty barely two minutes later, when referee Vidar Moen awarded another one for Leong Chang Yao's inadvertent handball. Isufi had no trouble with that one either, placing it down the middle for his own hat-trick.
Clark Won would get the scoreline into double figures with his composed finish soon afterwards, with Xavier Pon retroactively receiving the match's only yellow card for his blocking off Chow in the build-up.
