Buddies For The Boot
The result meant that Be Champions FC was officially relegated from II.2 with three rounds to go, despite Robbie Football Club narrowly losing out to Real Balmoral, 1-2. Mathematically, they can only catch Joker 9B, who remain on eight points after getting ripped apart by -= Manchester United =-, 1-7. Ethan Jacob got the Jokers' consolation from an 81st minute penalty.
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Tian Yonghang paid his respects to BCFC. "We might never play them again, with this development. But they will be remembered, for bringing the ultimate club-level accolades to Singapore."
Returning to the subject of the Birds, Tian noted that
Chan Ze Han and
Kalki Parvathaneni were currently leading the Golden Boot table, with ten each, one ahead of United's pair of Jan Mrhálek and Manuel Nastasi on nine. "This reminds me of back when Mohd Safri was being pushed by Chow Ying Lee and myself." he continued. "They're taking each other to ever greater heights."
Mia San Toa Payoh bounced back from their Birds humbling to edge Kim Tae Hee FC, with Dick McCandless and Jerry Lim finding the net in the first half. The hosts improved and hit back through Bartolomé Nil, but were overtaken by United in the table as the result stayed.
With Mia San odds-on to take full points from their final three games - against the teams in the bottom three spots -
Hovaness Noubaryan admitted that they were still favourites for the title. "Unlike them, we have Kim Tae Hee FC and -= Manchester United =-, and even if we don't slip up, they can make up twelve goals very realistically. But there's no point dwelling on that."
Ambush F.C. would again take out the Bunnies, who had to start without the injured Lau and Wong, and the suspended
Morgan Hu. This left trainee
Tan Dong Hao to start on the left wing, and
Ibrahim Zahran Al-Maashany to be restored in a 5-3-2. Ambush F.C. went two up from corners, however, and while
Vishnu Tallapaka replied from a free-kick, with Servando Mérida sent off for the second half, the Buns couldn't muster enough threat to overturn the scoreline.
This failure has seen increasing numbers of fans turn on long-serving head coach
Sikong Darong. "If we continue like this, not mentioning whichever monster's arriving from the S-League, we ain't beating JUtd over fourteen games next season." Farmer Now Mr. Bunnies vice president John Ming said. "We've always trusted in Sikong, but without reinvention, our great generation of players might never earn their just rewards."
Grilled International would at least turn it around, as
Roar Olaisen's right-hand man
Didi Reidenbach took some heat off, with a first hat-trick against fc Snoetie. True, two of those goals were penalties, but International will surely take what they can.
Wang Hanxuan, who scored the second in the 4-2 win, urged the squad to put the past month or so behind them. "We were never as bad as the numbers suggested. I'm considering it a fluke run myself."
