Kang Kong Re-educated
With the home victory, the Birds remained in the lead with five rounds remaining, but from how Sarcastic Fringeheads are staying on their tail, this might well go to the last day. "There's no let-up, but we aren't expecting any." head coach
Eren Serpin said. "Every game from now on is a cup final to us."
Serpin had some good news, in that the knocks to
Moey Xin Seng and
Bernie Egan had been diagnosed as superficial. "Both should be available next Sunday, but maybe they should be given more time to rest. We will see."
Back to Fringeheads, they couldn't really risk being shut out by UDNTK FC at home, and committed to a non-stop attacking flurry. Still, the Holland visitors stayed level until the 69th minute, when Ryan Kerr's corner was converted by Hans Heinrich Merkatz. Andrej Apatič would finally make sure with three minutes left, and given that UDNTK FC further lost both Minel Furdui and Benjamin Godlieb for about two weeks to injury, it had to be a galling experience for them.
Cup winners Haha would remain in third place, five points adrift, after they were held 2-2 by the Singapore Big Dogs. This allowed Grilled's next opponents Club Dinosauria to nearly catch up as they rampaged to a 5-2 lead away at Bot Team FC, only to then have to endure a rally by the hosts. The Bots would however not quite make it, and the 4-5 loss would see them stay fifth, on nine points.
The Farmer Bunnies are for their part back in line for promotion to the second division, with their 6-0 flattening of The Red Bomb coinciding with former leaders Kang Kong slipping up at Guru United. Unbeated before this, Kang Kong looked oddly vulnerable after former Ghana U-20 star Bright Eshun opened for Guru United on their first attempt, and goals from Zbigniew Niedzielak and Ube Elen made it 3-0 by the finish.
Mushtag Al-Nameeri continued his fine run of form by finding the first two goals barely a minute apart, but missed out on his hat-trick after stumbling in the 56th minute - though
Christophe Fouche stepped in to complete the job then.
Nurlan Ablaev,
Richard Agyei and then Ablaev's replacement
Ibrahim Zahran Al-Maashany scored the others, with Bomb's Spanish forward Ilarratz Jakuralde dismissed in the 78th minute, after one rough tackle too many.
Vivian Grubenmann admitted that he hadn't expected Kang Kong to drop points today, but would take good luck when it came. "In the bigger picture, it doesn't change too much, since we still have each other to play. Some little cushion does remain nice to have."
