Fleet Treat
Neeraj Nails It
Djan Bacelar's cup commitment looks to have breathed new life into this Grilled team, as they dismantled Benfleet Branch 7-0 at Olympic Lyons Park, handily surpassing all pre-match expectations. Not only that, it was achieved without
Moey Xin Seng - who would however be busy waving one end of a banner in a VIP box - and also with a man down for the last twenty minutes of the game.
Although it had not been the best of times for this Benfleet side, who have yet to win in normal time for their last three matches, most bookies had the Blues on about even odds coming in. Their Danish head coach Tino Seiffert expressed confidence in his selection, though he had to cope without centreback Hélder Melo and forward Chiang Kian Feng, both due to injury.
Bacelar's little tweak for the day was to put
Jérémy Tarin in at the back, but any analysis by the commentators on the reasoning behind that decision was soon lost in a flurry of action. Allowing their opponents to settle was evidently not in Grilled's brief, and
Cyril Künzler took Benfleet skipper Meho Saltagić on a merry run-around down the right side. The cross was short to Iranian trainee
Iman Eshrafi, who finally recorded his first goal for the Birds, slotting a drive in against Edward Dare.
It was the beginning of a very bad day indeed for the Northern Irish goalie, who couldn't help but behave as if rattled after giving that one up. Not to take anything from
Neeraj Muthyala, however, who is quickly making a name for himself as a deadly header specialist. Italian defender Paolo Cesca recognized the threat, as he tailed Muthyala on Grilled's 13th minute corner, but could do nothing in the end to prevent him from rising like a salmon for yet another textbook finish.
The originally-upbeat Benfleet fans were soon holding their heads in their hands glumly, as their already-tenuous dreams slipped further away with
Florus Romijn's 18th minute cracker. Muthyala's was prospering in midfield as his other skills came to light, and while
Kalki Parvathaneni flubbed the finish after making room for himself with his turn of pace, he would compensate by acrobatically clipping home one of Muthyala's forward lobs in the 31st.
The Blues would soon have more cause to be upset, as rough play by
Islom Davlatov and
Mohammad Ramli Saliman saw them booked in a scrappy and frankly slightly ugly conclusion to the first half, even as Muthyala made it five-nil after barging his way past Eemi Hietanen, in a notable departure from his usual style. Saltagić was seen remonstrating with the referee as they walked off the pitch, apparently at Grilled's behaviour, but if János Bikácsy thought he had a point, it didn't show.
Grilled did take it down a notch infringement-wise after returning, which was definitely the rational thing to do, given their very comfy lead. They did not suffer overmuch chance-wise despite that drop in intensity, and continued owning the flanks.
Florus Romijn pumped a delightful cross in with fifty minutes gone, that Eshrafi really should have lapped up; he emphasized precision overly, sadly, and had to look on as Hietanen cleared at the back post.
Islom Davlatov just could not avoid controversy, having long been on the Benfleet supporters' marked list for numerous sneaky moves pulled on their defenders. His pointed celebrations after a neat volleyed goal in the 66th minute sure riled them up, but matters would only really come to a head on the Birds' next attack.
Kalki Parvathaneni was again flying in from the left, having turned his marker, and had his effort messily smothered by Edward Dare, who struggled to retain control of the ball. Davlatov certainly wasn't about to stand around, and launched himself into contention, painfully stamping on Dare's groin area in the process.
There was no way that Davlatov was staying on after that, and one could almost feel half the stadium wince, as the act was replayed. Bacelar would urge him to enter the tunnel as swiftly as possible to ease tensions, and made the tactical switch of
Tian Yonghang for
Iman Eshrafi in response. The grandly-named Lord Farao took over from Dare, at the same time.
With this, Tian became the only player on both sides to have featured in both the clubs' meetings thus far, and the lone holdover was eager to make his presence felt. A little dodge here, a subtle lean there, and Tian extended his scoring streak to twenty-two seasons, beating Farao from close-up following a rare mistake from Cesca.
