Bannson Burst
Slowly Stern
The Raiders were once again dispatched with a five-goal margin, as they evidently hadn't learnt how to cope with Grilled's midfield in the intervening weeks between their two league meetings.
The home fans surely had expected an improvement, and there were many long faces as Grilled defender
Ding Sun-Nee ran crossfield and broke through on the left side to put Grilled in the lead. Ding was in excellent form, and only Ahmad's reflexes prevented him from grabbing another after Li Lin-Tse got robbed as the last man.
Such howlers were not the exclusive domain of Bannson, and
Daniel Tellskär made one of his own when he turned right into an opposition player. Pen-min released the ball cleverly, and the fleetfooted Ow-Yang Chi-choong took it all the way and beat Bao-Tam to the delight of the spectators.
Bannson would then take the lead with a stunner by Zhuan Pen-min in the 27th minute, which had the fans dancing in the stands. That was the happiest they would be, however, as their key midfielder José Carlos Capella Pons would soon be withdrawn due to the recurrence of an old injury.
Shorn of Pons, Bannson struggled to hold the ball, and his replacement Loh Huaxing let the game pass him by. A couple of minutes was all Chen needed to put Grilled right back in it, as he scooped a wondrous lob past Ahmad.
Bannson reverted to the roughhouse tactics that saw Chai and Machado suffer light injuries in their previous meeting, and winger David Anderwald held nothing back when he dug his heels into Dai-Lin's thigh after both went to ground. That was it for the Grilled star, but he had something to smile about as his substitute
Peter Magnusson duly scored before half-time.
Grilled didn't quite miss Machado as
Joe Stern continued his hot form, weaving beautifully to make it 2-4 in the 50th minute. The Birds were still being hustled at every step, though, and
Chen Chiew-Yen finally lost his cool and purposefully nudged Kiat-Boon in the 54th minute, causing the Bannson midfielder to appeal to the referee, who booked Chen.
Ding then did it again with a confident header after
Aznan Noor Yadah made his way down the left and put a cross right into the centre of the penalty area, and
Joe Stern followed suit with an acrobatic strike to put Grilled solidly in the driving seat.
With the result beyond doubt, Chen felt able to retaliate after another pull at his shirt was not spotted by the officials, and he shoved Huaxing in full view of the referee in the 71st minute and simply strode off the pitch. Not that it hurt Grilled, as Stern recorded a hat-trick with a piledriver of a free-kick.
