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| FIXTURE HISTORY |
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| Season 61 | W | 7 - 2 | League | | Season 52 | W | 4 - 1 | Tournament (Playoffs) | | Season 26 | W | 2 - 5 | Cup |
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Long March
Leong Charge
Days after capturing the Ruby Challenger Cup, the Birds reprised their worst league defeat of all time, as they were completely dismantled by saiNts United FC on the occasion of
Tian Yonghang's milestone two hundredth league start. The Grilled players appeared almost drugged as the Saints ran rings around them, and they were manifestly unable to insert themselves into the fray.
Then again, the Saints had lost their last four straight, scoring only two in the process, which led bookies to reasonably keep Grilled as odds-on favourite, if barely.
They got it badly wrong.
While Grilled stayed with most of their regulars, it was evident that they were all knackered, a fact that the Saints were too canny not to realise. Cheong An Puay for one cranked up the running, teasing the Birds' defence into reacting to him, and the hosts' forced pace soon ate into what remained of Grilled's scant reserves.
Twenty-five minutes in, Saints would go up as Goh Jian Tian threaded an exquisite strike into the roof of the net, while midfielder Leong Ho Sze would crash a header in off
Wong Tian Han's gloves two minutes later. If there was one man who could have saved Grilled, it would have been their trusty custodian, but with Wong also off the boil, they were primed for the slaughter.
Tian Yonghang, as always, attempted to cajole his teammates by example, but he could make no headway against assigned man-marker Michael Lee himself. This was in itself a huge turnaround from Saints' rather less-principled approach at The Cooking Pot, and with Tian all but shackled, they were free to press the issue on the Birds' unconvincing defence.
The crumbling continued unabated, with
Gene Filippone getting regularly rinsed by the speed of Manoj Yeturi, and it was only dumb luck that kept Chau Yun Hock from making it three in the 37th. No matter, Leong would nod nonchalently past a shaken
Wong Tian Han soon enough, and then complete his hat-trick after free-kick chaos in the box.
The home fans were definitely enjoying this one, while the visitors were more dumbstruck than anything.
Djan Bacelar, while animated after Grilled conceded the first, had long since retired to the dugout, where he calmly contemplated the unfolding catastrophe with the air of a man who knew that nothing he could do would salvage the situation.
This attitude could not help but rub off on the players, who showed few signs of reinventing themselves for the second half.
Rinor Isufi and
Low Aik Jia did at least push themselves, which resulted in a passable half-chance for the former after some bumbling along, but he managed only to hit it straight to Ng Seng An.
The Saints built on what worked for them, and made it five through Ramadhan Abdullah's accurate drive, ably assisted by Wan Husain Tajuddin scooting in from the left. A bit later, Yeturi finally got the goal he had been angling for, former national winger Chau Yun Hock turning Low inside-out with a completely convincing flip-flap, that he parlayed directly into an unconventional but deadly effective cross.
Grilled's supporters were more or less numb to it when Cheong An Puay dug one between
Wong Tian Han's feet in the 70th, and even the usually-serious goalie appeared to recognize the futility of it all. Saints finally suffered a setback of sorts when Deva Balaraju picked up an unnecessary yellow for interfering with
Lee Lee Hao's throw-in, but it would be followed by
Ling Fuquan's defensive header coming off Wan Husain Tajuddin face, and spinning over a disbelieving Wong.
With the home fans baying for a new record, Bacelar finally saw fit to throw
Gennady Dvorak on, and the Argentine took to the thankless task of holding the ball up selflessly enough, with his nimble feet luring Leong into a booking on his first few touches.
Ling Fuquan would then make way for
Zhao Jing Wei with five minutes remaining, and
Low Aik Jia took the stoppage as an opportunity to take himself out, pointing to a slight limp. One could easily understand if he had just wanted to escape the scene a little earlier, and in any case,
Neeraj Muthyala remained eager enough to get another league appearance to his name.
