Tanuk 0 - 10 Grilled Birds
Tanuk Nuked
Reserves Shine
Established East Coast part-timers Tanuk were knocked out of the Singapore Cup in their first appearance in five seasons, coming alongside their much-awaited promotion to the fourth division. This did not however grant them any protection against a Birds team badly in need of a pick-me-up, and for all of skipper Zainuddin bin Salleh's admirable gusto, they were dealt a double-digit drubbing by Grilled.
Chow Ying Lee was named as a starter after his prospective move was put on hold, while wingers
Wong Ping Shun and
Low Aik Jia moved infield as part of
Djan Bacelar's ongoing personnel assessment.
Pompeo Bellamoli,
Hilal Bakhtiar and
Remco van der Ban were handed opportunities, which the first two capitalized on, unlike the manifestly overstimulated Remco.
There was never doubt as to whether the Birds would advance, as the hosts wasted no time in turtling in and trying for the draw. The soggy ground prolonged their resistance somewhat, but it was effectively over as a contest once
Hilal Bakhtiar crept inside in the 17th minute to flip in
Low Aik Jia's speculative lob, his first competitive goal in five seasons.
That got Bakhtiar hyped up enough to flop face-forward into a puddle in celebration, which his teammates politely declined to imitate. While Tanuk never quite entered Grilled's penalty area, they did have a moment here and there, and 55 year-old retiree He Junyuan exhibited a neat two-footed turn, only to be chopped down rather overzealously by
Remco van der Ban. This earned him an immediate yellow card, which the home supporters were vocally in favour of.
Tanuk remained respectably compact in defence, helped by not being at all eager to venture out of their comfort zone, and Grilled only got a second bite of the cherry when You Huiping tried to spearhead a breakout. Three-quarters of the way was as far as he got, however, and this opened up enough space that
Chow Ying Lee could find the back of the net with a well-planned snipe.
The hosts' spirits flagged noticeably after that, and the Birds would go five up before half-time, courtesy of
Pompeo Bellamoli, Bakhtiar again, and
Wong Ping Shun. Security officer You Huiping was one of the few Tanuk players who still held thoughts of advancing, but this only led to a 40th minute booking as he awkwardly tried to win the ball back from Low.
Fifteen minutes' rest did Tanuk a world of good, and other than a perfectly-placed grounder right between Mohd Jamil bin Wahab and his near post by French marauder
Clément Meyer, they held Grilled well for the first twenty minutes of the second half. Fatigue again began to strike, though, and
Tian Yonghang nicked his 95th cup goal after befuddling Chan Kong Ming with his off-the-ball footwork.
A couple of set-piece conversions followed, as
Low Aik Jia got the benefit of a huge deflection in a packed six yard box, after option to bludgeon Bellamoli's partly-cleared delivery first-time. Chow then could have gone it himself when a corner fell to him, but filled with decades of hard-won experience, he instead cushioned it to an appreciative Meyer for Grilled's ninth of the day.
Pompeo Bellamoli made it ten with a stylish stab of his boot in the 83rd minute that confused Mohd Jamil, but there was no such luck for
Mohd Safri bin Mohd Kassim, who saw his effort stopped on the line by Badrul Afzan bin Musa. Mohd Safri was convinced that it had crossed, but Malaysian referee Indra Putra bin Ismail didn't agree, and his was the only opinion that mattered.
Physical education teacher Badrul Afzan could be seen rubbing his back after that last-ditch slide, and there would be more pain in his future. Concurrent to Mohd Safri's appeal,
Remco van der Ban crashed full-tilt into the luckless defender, having been in search of a goal to call his own. That meant a second yellow for the Spaniard, who had the good grace not to protest too hard.
