Town Fall
Aznan Assault
Grilled Birds inflicted a 0-4 defeat on Chinatown United with another Chiew-Yen double, though maturing left winger
Aznan Noor Yadah stole the show with his pace late in the game. Chinatown were inspired by homegrown Indian midfielder Aksala Chandra from the start, while the Grilled defence looked decidedly shaky without the usual commanding presence of
Hang Bao-Tam at the back. Ageing backup keeper
Cheung Huel-sheng showed that he was not completely out of it when he managed to parry a stinging Chinatown free kick after Stanton had stupidly impeded Miao Jia-Jie. Huel-sheng's shrewd recovery and long throw set Aznan off and running, and he got the ball to Chiew-Yen on the break only for the striker to hit his shot too close to Bengtsson. Aznan's opposite number Sima Pak-Hong was at sixes and sevens shadowing the speedy winger, and ended up being substituted twenty two minutes into the game after a hard clash with Aznan. Journeyman Dutchman Berend van der Sluijs entered in his place, but was not up to the task defensively, allowing Aznan to run riot. Grilled's opener came through
Zhan Ju-Hau, who looked left and right before finding Chiew-Yen wide open in the middle. Chiew-Yen beat Bengtsson comfortably this time round. Chinatown's Berend used his hands a little too much on Aznan, and was cautioned on the dot of half-time for that.
Grilled played positively from the restart, and
Ma Dai-Lin reminded the crowd of his presence with a precision pass to American forward
Miguel Reed. Reed capitalised on his first chance of the day, chopping the ball on the fly into the net. Chinatown's right flank began to be badly exposed by Aznan's speed, and when right wingback Chen Aik-Hau left Aznan get in front of him for a second there was no turning back. That goal gave Grilled the luxury of falling back to defend their lead, which looked like a good idea when hotheaded defender
Nor Suhaimi bin Che Lah got himself expelled from the game for headbutting Lip-Xiang after a tussle. Kek-Tjiang replaced him in the wingback position and both Grilled's forwards pulled back too. This was just as well as only the combined efforts of Tuan-Mu and Kek-Tjiang was enough to deter Chinatown's Miao Jie-Jie from breaking through in the 80th minute. Grilled's leaky defence took another hit when
Lan Tuan-Mu was left on the ground after stopping that surge. It turned out that he had bruised his kneecap badly, and
Weng Seng-Huat was left to plug the holes for the last ten minutes. Unexpectedly it was Grilled who scored a late goal, as the unstoppable Aznan tore through on the left to center the ball to Chiew-Yen, who just had to put in the final touch to close off the game.
