Farewell To Paradise
Division Three Beckons
Grilled's relegation to the third division was confirmed with three rounds to go, but after watching how little they achieved against the CoCoTeaTree Islanders, it was hard for even the most blinkered Birds fan to justify their continued membership at this level. The Islanders had figured out that all they needed to do was to sit pretty and bide their time against Grilled's poor defence, and it worked just about as everyone expected.
There was a rather bizarre opening to the match, though, as academy debutant Koh Kuan Wai came off in the second minute, to the Grilled side's bemusement. The obvious explanation was to get a professional start on his resume, though the more common practice is of course a sub in towards the end. This wasn't taken well by a section of the travelling fans, who saw it as disrespectful - but it wasn't as if the Birds were going to earn much of that today.
Six minutes was all it took for the hosts to find the go-ahead goal that they were looking for. Despite effectively in a 5-5-0, some basic footballing expertise was all it took for them to bamboozle the Birds when they did press ahead, with Grilled outrageously lacking in leadership in the defensive department.
Gene Filippone appeared to be yelling for
Hoàng Trung Quá to double back and take Mathieu Laye, but it went unheeded, and the French winger duly drilled it in off the base of the post.
Moldovan Vadim Apostol, who had come in for Koh, would be the designated holder-upper for the Islanders after that, as they were content to protect their lead. This was something that Apostol turned out to be pretty good at;
Clark Won tried all the tricks he knew to get it off Apostol at the corner flag in the 11th minute, and all he managed to win was a booking.
In Grilled's defence, it was indeed pretty tough to get anything going when the opponents had no intention of venturing past their own half-way line voluntarily. They were down to having
Tian Yonghang and
Moey Xin Seng trying to run interference for
Rinor Isufi, but the entire setup was so transparent, that there was no way that the Islanders could let something like that pass.
After half an hour of the same thing, the spectators had moved past wondering whether it was all in preparation for some elaborate unexpected trick; at least, it wasn't only the Birds' fans whom were looking bored.
Half-time saw
Djan Bacelar give
Dante Tran a run-out, in place of
Clark Won, and to be honest it was hard to discern the difference. The same monotony continued with nary a gleam of hope for the Birds, despite Mihai Dod coming on for the Islanders, and then
Rashid bin Ahmad after that, taking over from the unimpressive Filippone.
The home team would finally put the result beyond reasonable doubt with fourteen minutes remaining, although given that Grilled hadn't even managed a shot attempt in the second half, there wasn't much doubt to begin with. Mohd Razman Yasir swung the corner in, and Apostol - who was doing as well against Rashid as he had against Won and Filippone - rose sharply to head it in.
If there was any consolation to be had here, it would have to be that the Birds had more or less kept the Islanders out of their penalty area. This was a technicality, though, and Laye piled it on with his second of the day, lashed in forcefully after Guschti Evangelista had shielded well in a tight spot.
