Corsairs Consequences
Vik Kalki Tricks
The Birds finally matched the 12-0 scoreline they had only accomplished twice before, both in their Singapore Cup campaign nineteen seasons ago. The victims this time were celebrated Holland Village pub team Holland Corsairs, who boasted of twelve Division Five titles, and had been in Division Three just four years back.
That turned out to be an overreach, if already well beyond what the collection of retirees had ever dreamt of, and the Birds brought the bad old days back by refusing to hold off. For the Corsairs, Chin Lai-Hsiang had been a marvel up top considering his age, but he would wind up slugging it out together with the rest, as it soon became clear that they were never making it to Grilled's box.
Fullback Yang Min-Chiu went only six minutes before being booked, as
Vikram Mudaliar swamped their left wing by himself, managing a brace in eleven. Corsairs were all but packing their own defensive third by then, and thanks to some good communication from Lu Ami-Hai, Grilled were stuck for a while.
Not for long, though, and
Kalki Parvathaneni sashayed his way inside for 3-0 in the 28th minute. Ever the leader, Corsairs skipper Li Li-Lian bought his team valuable time by blocking
Bilal Mohammad Harun's quick free after that, but
Moey Xin Seng would score after it was reset, anyway. Mudaliar then got his hat-trick after some elbowing, and the next minutes saw
Islom Davlatov and
Chu Xin Lee find a way past Corsairs' stressed-out custodian, Dou Thien-Huu.
Thirty-six minutes was perhaps the fastest that Grilled had reached seven goals, and their hosts' pride would compel them to commit fouls, that they otherwise might not have done. In the aftermath of his captain being dismissed for a second flagrant tackle, winger Zhu Hung-Fai would fall awkwardly trying to catch
Florus Romijn, and the game had to stop for his leg to be inspected.
That injury - which ended with Lian Wan-Chung subbed on for Zhu - would take much of the fire out of the proceedings, what with half-time pending, but Grilled went back to predator mode straight after the enforced rest.
Neeraj Muthyala had plenty of running in him after coming on for
Islom Davlatov, and he easily fed
Kalki Parvathaneni for a sweet overhead goal, 51 minutes in.
Bilal was next to go, as
Chan Ze Han made a welcome entrance on the hour, though the match had entered something of a lull about this time. It would take a jarring incident for it to spark back into life, which came when Zabidi Arshad's sliding tackle not only dragged
Neeraj Muthyala to the ground, but further caught him in his tender bits.
Very thankfully, Muthyala had avoided the worst of it, and Zabidi accepted the yellow without any complaint. The free-kick would led to
Florus Romijn taking it all the way for the ninth, and fellow winger
Cyril Künzler would get Grilled into the double digits by the 77th minute, slamming home a penalty given for shirt-pulling on a corner.
The Birds deigned to stop at that, with
Kalki Parvathaneni especially motivated to complete his hat-trick - which he did, in the 83rd minute. Not to be outdone,
Vikram Mudaliar stepped it up against a fast-fading Corsairs backline, and poached a fourth for himself.
That took its toil on Yang Min-Chiu, who twisted his ankle marking Mudaliar, and Xu Tse-mach would see it out for him. As for Grilled, the 43 year-old
Tian Yonghang came on for Moey right as the fourth official signalled for five minutes of time added on, making him the only Grilled man to participate, if not score in, all three of their biggest wins thus far.
