|
| FIXTURE HISTORY |
|
| Season 52 | W | 4 - 1 | Tournament (Playoffs) | | Season 26 | W | 2 - 5 | Cup |
| |
|
|
Saints Rolled
Safri Inflicts
Iconic Tanglin club saiNts United FC had not faced Grilled in a competitive match for a full 35 seasons, but they might have figured that a few more wouldn't be amiss, after the Birds hammered them by seven goals to two in a historic first league meeting. Not only that, Grilled had to play most of it with ten men after
Clément Meyer's dismissal, but the rest were at their rollicking best, in slicing the visitors apart.
SaiNts had by all measures been having an outstanding campaign thus far, with only a single defeat in nine competitive games, a narrow away 4-5 against Blackburn Rovers Fan last week. They responded by comprehensively defeating league fivals FC Barca Singapore in the main cup on Wednesday, with midfielder Joe Kwok helping them to a 4-0 lead by half-time. Little could their jubilant fans have known, that this situation would be reversed today.
Head coach Tian Kunhong did touch up the 2-5-3 that had served them so well against Barca, resting Yeo Wei Nie and Leong Ho Sze, while moving former S$12.4 million signing Ramadhan Abdullah inside. He further put Goh Jian Tian in an attacking rightback role, ostensibly to place pressure on
Low Aik Jia's questionable defensive contributions, and it did stifle Low somewhat - but it would end up a case of winning the battle, but losing the war.
Djan Bacelar for his part kept faith with
Zhao Jing Wei's ability in the hole, as the veteran vice-captain kept
Rinor Isufi stewing on the bench. It would be revealed to be a great decision, though, as the visitors didn't manage to get a toehole in the first exchanges. This could only wind up in Grilled's favour, and thus it did after just seven minutes, when
Mohd Safri bin Mohd Kassim picked up on Zhao's almost indifferent flick-on, to clip the opener past Ng Seng An.
It was a bad introduction to Division Two for the newly-signed Ng on his debut for saiNts, with longtime Number One Woo Qiang Shi having just been moved on to French club les toxines. The 23 year-old Singapore Pirates mainstay understandably hadn't yet built up a rapport with his teammates, which was exposed when Mohd Safri was left free to attack a corner in the 23rd minute, unsurprisingly finding the target.
Ng, who was apparently expecting Goh to cover that one, would not have time to thrash the division of responsibilities out, before
Clark Won took advantage to poke in for 3-0, two minutes on. The saiNts supporters evidently figured out that they weren't winning this one at this juncture, but admirably kept up the cheering from the North Stand.
Their hopes went from none to slim nearing the end of the half, after
Clément Meyer senseless and savage tackle left Deva Balaraju writhing in agony. Volker Kaube had no qualms in ejecting Meyer immediately, or in booking
Wong Ping Shun for his persistent protests. Michael Lee entered, after receiving a long series of instructions from his head coach.
Unfortunately, any planned comeback did not get off the ground as planned, with
Gene Filippone sneaking in a fourth after saiNts attempted a full-on charge that backfired. It could even have been five had Mohd Safri rounded off a hat-trick with a cheeky lob, but Ng finally pulled himself together for that one.
Being four-nil down was definitely not what saiNts had counted on being, going into the break, and captain and former national winger Chau Yun Hock would have an extended man-to-man chat with Tian Kunhong, walking down the tunnel. It was unclear what transpired, but Chau would certainly get saiNts going in the second half, brazenly outfoxing
Lee Lee Hao before firing an empathetic reducer between
Wong Tian Han's feet.
There was then a brief spell where the visitors looked as if they could threaten to make it interesting, but it quickly petered off, as
Zhao Jing Wei fell back to restore Grilled's midfield balance. Decades of understanding combined to weave a cohesive system for the Birds, and
Tian Yonghang made it look almost effortless when he ran at Zhao's 59th minute pass early, to force his way by Michael Lee and make it 5-1.
Manoj Yeturi, who had tracked
Lee Lee Hao to no avail on that move, finally gave vent to his frustrations by purposefully bumping into Mohd Safri as the Grilled forward retrieved the ball, but the referee was on hand to put a stop to any more silliness with a prompt yellow card.
Yeturi would be rather happier three minutes later, as he found himself engaged in Grilled's penalty area for once. Abandoning the right for once, saiNts threw the Birds off with a slick switch over to the far left, where Soh Ze Hao cut inside Won after some interference run by Cheong An Puay. Rakesh Katam timed the return pass perfectly, leaving Soh an easy finish on
Wong Tian Han.
Grilled were not taking that, however, and amped it up even as saiNts gave in to caution. The sparkle returned to The Cooking Pot as the Birds found it in themselves to entertain, and
Yuki Irie would exhibit his newfound scoring touch, knocking a contested bounce into the saiNts net in the 74th. Yuki seemed slightly surprised at the lucky break, but didn't take long to break into a celebratory jig.
The seventh would come when
Wong Ping Shun found the top corner from the edge of the saiNts box awhile later, and there was nothing Tian Kunhong could do but throw up his hands at that.
