Back To Their Best
Chu Chu Train
Grilled bounced right back from their Paladins humiliation with admirable alacrity, as they treated their supporters to a 9-0 thumping of Red Chaos in the rain. This meant that they had improved their final score against their Pasir Ris visitors for the fourth straight time, and much of it had to be attributed to
Chu Xin Lee, who achieved his maiden competitive hat-trick at 24 years of age.
Chaos, staying with their red home kit to avoid a clash of colours, had not had the best of seasons. Despite maintaining a competent midfield core, general consensus was that the rest of Bulcsú Latabár's team had regressed, and they had to suffer three crushing league defeats before securing a brave draw against -Blitz- last week. An Emerald Challenger Cup exit at the hands of KevinDP team only piled on the misery, and it was a Chaos squad in some turmoil that arrived at The Cooking Pot today.
The Birds were however in no mood to help out, having been freshly spanked themselves. Complications to
Massoud Dob's ankle injury suggest that he will be out for at least one more week, leaving
Dan Seng in goal.
Florus Romijn was also rested as a precaution, with
Neeraj Muthyala continuing on the left after a commendable cameo in the role against newbies.
They were certainly hungry, and few more so than
Islom Davlatov, who clearly still chafed at his midweek experience. He would power right through to knock in a third-minute goal, and his relentless hunting-down of the ball would get him booked in the 23rd minute. The harrying had however taken its cumulative toll on Red Chaos' defence, so it seemed, as
Kalki Parvathaneni slipped through past Ling Sze Ah for 2-0.
Grilled continued their slogging with a heartwarming diligence, keeping it low and short despite the heavy pitch.
Chu Xin Lee's resilience under these conditions might have come as something of a surprise, but
Vikram Mudaliar certainly didn't mind much, when Chu flicked it over to him in the 36th minute. Gioacchino Errico's bad day got worse on Mudaliar's effort, which glided in on a particularly slick patch of grass.
Chu would really come into his own in the second half, striking true himself after 51 minutes, as Grilled rolled on with their brutally-effective narrow game. Red Chaos didn't have much to a plan at this stage, but one of their clearances would be worked by Hung Kong Kum into a free-kick opportunity on the edge of the area.
Dan Seng would prove his worth on that, as he slapped Peter Mader's sharp take aside to preserve his clean sheet.
That proved but a break in the usual action, with Chu getting another from the aftermath of that set-piece.
Yuki Irie would come on for Hoàng on the hour, and just in time to watch
Cyril Künzler overtake a outclassed Yeoh Kian Loong on the right. The Chaos backline not unreasonably stuck with Grilled's forwards, but this afforded Künzler the space he needed to close in for himself. Gan Loong Han would recognize the threat belatedly, but the shot had gone off by then.
Latabár still cared enough to swap Gan around with Kok Ze How to try and contain Künzler, who was growing as a threat. That didn't exactly pan out, with the Pole simply doing some floating about of his own, and there was nobody in his vicinity when he followed up on
Moey Xin Seng's blast, to collect another goal in the 74th minute. Kalki and Chu would then bring the total up to nine, before referee Gil Bromberg saw fit to end the beatdown.
