Making A Point
Acting skipper and Man of the Match
Chan Ze Han elected to celebrate the team's achievement, rather than bemoan the win that slipped through their fingers. "Let's be honest, this was more than most anyone had expected of us. Today, we showed that we can hack it with the top clubs of the S-League - we only need to repeat it in the following weeks."
This was also, by the way, the first-ever draw between the Birds and Bot Team FC in their previous guise, the Young Tigers. The clubs have actually had a moderately rich history, with their eight league clashes in II.2 ending 5-3 in Grilled's favour. Their paths would diverge upon the Tigers' demotion at the end of Season 55, though, which was also when they rebranded to their current moniker.
Despite the Birds' best efforts, the main challengers for the S-League title couldn't capitalize, as both Sarcastic Fringeheads and Arrogancae lost playing away to Haha and Mia San Toa Payoh respectively. While Haha's feat wasn't entirely unexpected given Fringeheads' cup commitments, the magnitude of Mia San's 5-0 result did raise some eyebrows. Its architect was hat-trick hero Jerry Lim, who clearly had pent-up emotion to burn, after being dropped from the national squad. With KingofNoobs United beating United Legends FC 3-1, there are now four teams on nine points.
It was another goalless draw for the Bunnies, who couldn't break Club Dinosauria down in time.
Ibrahim Zahran Al-Maashany very nearly stole it at the end, but Deinos custodian Florea Răducu was impeccable off his line. The dropped points were compounded by a bad knee injury to
Wong Ting Yew inflicted by Fokko Schlattmeier, with Wong likely to be sidelined for a month.
Club captain
Tham Leng Teck, himself just recovered from a major operation, lambasted the match officials for not protecting Wong more. "It's ridiculous how much the referees allow nowadays." he began in the post-match round-up. "Our guys are getting chopped down left and right, and it's just verbal warnings for the other side."
JUtd took the opportunity to pull clear, as they put the Chillies away 4-1, despite their upcoming Singapore Cup semifinal. Ambush F.C. kept pace with a 2-0 win over The EV, while Heaven Skys and littlehorse ended scoreless too.
