Making It Late
Left To The Last
It was looking as if tragedy could well be piled upon tragedy, with plucky fourth division East Coast club M4 United poised to take a severely-rattled Birds team to extra time and beyond, when Grilled bust out four goals in the closing seven minutes to go through with a bang.
The story was always going to be about how the Birds would respond to the worst hiding in their entire history, and if M4 United were to have any say in it, it was going to be - not very well. They had beaten RA Trevista Rangers to earn this match, and their fate over the weekend could not have been more different than Grilled, having hit a troubled Team Charis for eleven.
Local forward Seah De Jie was the hero then with a hat-trick after finally winning back a place in the starting XI, for he would not feature today after head coach Kavel Patel gunned for frustrating Grilled with a 4-5-1. Young Samad Furqan was tasked to hold it up top for as long as he could, with Polish captain Przemysław Budziarek soon directing the rearguard from the middle, despite nominally being pencilled in at right wing.
It was a perfect opportunity for Grilled's up-and-comers like
Rinor Isufi and
Hariharan Prabhu to make their case for a promotion, but judging from how the first half went,
Djan Bacelar might not exactly be overwhelmed. While quite a bit could be attributed to M4 United's unabashed pressing, it should perhaps be expected that players of their pedigree might have been expected to manage.
As it was, they made little headway against the pumped-up home team, who did not however make much of an effort to attack themselves. Przemysław Krauze's physical style sufficed nicely in central defence, as he took
Chow Ying Lee down with a straight-on charge in the 18th minute. Krauze got booked for that, but four minutes later, he was at it again, butting heads with
Mohd Safri bin Mohd Kassim. He did come off the worse for that one, requiring a bandage for a minor gash above the eyebrow.
It was an indictment of the general lack of inspiration from the Grilled side, that their sole attempt of note was a hit-and-pray type from
Hilal Bakhtiar, which came nowhere close. Chow was riled up by the constant harassment to the extent of pulling Krauze to the grass after eating yet another tackle during that move, for which he was rightly carded too.
The visiting support - sadly rather reduced from the usual mob - were not impressed, and there wasn't even much of a turnaround after the restart. Once again,
Tian Yonghang was the most invested one on the Grilled team, but the combination of Lee Han Leong and Chia Ah Min on his flank managed to clip his wings quite effectively.
While it was not as if M4 United were threatening much either, with Furqan close to dragging himself about, having spent much energy closing down long clearances, an upset seemed more and more likely as the minutes counted down. A lucky corner, a fall in the box... the home fans had good cause to be hopeful.
Even extra time was looking good, when finally Mohd Safri broke the deadlock with barely seven minutes left.
Rinor Isufi had finally uncovered the spurt of pace that he had teased at all along, which caught Italian trainee Ciro Buratin totally unprepared. The M4 United backline was at sixes and sevens as Isufi sped along the outside of the penalty area, before picking Mohd Safri out with a reverse pass.
There was something approaching relief on the Grilled mainstay's face as he celebrated with his provider, and it could well have been wiped out in an instant as M4 United sought to strike back. Forced on the attack now, they discovered that the Birds were not particularly good going backwards, and Krauze had a clear sight on
Wong Tian Han's goal. The centreback powered it over rather unconvincingly, though.
This underlined the fact that Grilled should not try to sit on a single goal lead, and they sought to occupy M4 United in their own half. Another chance would come when
Zhao Jing Wei was hauled back by Budziarek, and
Chow Ying Lee duly cleaned up from the ensuing indirect free-kick.
The hosts were undone at this, and their previously-impeccable defensive discipline finally broke. An all-or-nothing rush on kick-off broke on Grilled's massed lines, and the stragglers were picked apart on the return play.
Lee Lee Hao attempted to find the bottom corner with his flashy drive, and it wound up catching an odd bounce to set
Rashid bin Ahmad up perfectly for 3-0.
Leong Wan Kang and
Pompeo Bellamoli were chafing at the bit to get in on the action, as they waited to come on for Mohd Safri and Chow, and they indeed got what they had come for, as their unrestrained running gave
Tian Yonghang the room he needed to cap this late boiler.
