Nearly Man
Lesson Learnt
It was almost a reprise of last Sunday's agonizing stumble for Grilled Birds here, but they just about crested the tape at Old Trafford, against a -= Manchester United =- team still reeling from their cup final heartbreak. United again resorted to the 5-3-2 that had served them well enough then, if with Sim Chin Chi tasked with the all-important sweeper role now. The Birds would steal a march on them instead, however, which would be sufficient to claim all three points.
Grilled wouldn't make too many changes either, though they had Mudaliar and Moey in a slightly more advanced position than previously;
Kalle ter Berg returned to central midfield with
Kalki Parvathaneni taking the left flank that he had been improvising so well on, leaving
Salah Kamel on the bench. Of course, with a Challenger Cup final upcoming, there had to be something to be said for possibly being rested beforehand.
Most present would remember Horst Friedrich Dalen shocking the Birds in the seventh minute last weekend, but the story would be turned around today, with
Moey Xin Seng taking just five minutes to leave his mark. Carrying on from his imperious form against Wick Academy F.C., Moey would brook no objection with his aggressive dribble as the Birds parked themselves around United's penalty area, and Beau Gilmont would not be able to get stuck in before the Grilled captain curled it across Man-Shik So.
That was undeniably a classy take, and there was more to come from the Birds. As previously, United sought to operate on the counterattack, but were stymied by Grilled's increased cautiousness in the face of that intent. Lucio Reascos' attempt at running it down their right wing would be broken down by Kalki in the eleventh minute, and a couple of rapid passes later,
Vikram Mudaliar lumped it high into the net for 2-0.
The United fans got very restless at that, and the hostile ruckus that they raised would arguably aid their players to some extent. Estonian referee Veiko Kool, seemingly affected, awarded several borderline decisions their way, though there was no getting around Dejan Skrt's manhandling of
Teo Chuan Yong in the 20th minute. Even this would go their way eventually, as the indirect free-kick was returned by Reascos, who succeeded in assisting Paweł Święcicki.
Grilled were more riled up by that than was probably appropriate, with Salmiņš protesting to the linesman at a perceived offside, which brought only jeers from the home partisans.
Moey Xin Seng would have his right boot do the talking with an almost disrespectful go at So from thirty yards, which however came much closer than the South Korean goalkeeper was comfortable with. Three minutes later,
Bilal Mohammad Harun would let rip after managing to come up the goalline from the right, but slammed it off the base of the near post.
United kept the Birds away for most of the rest of the first half, and had their supporters back up and dancing, upon the restart. Abandoning caution for once, United attacked through Radim Chvátal down the left, where he found
Chu Xin Lee not the strictest of players on defense.
Gilbert Webb would lose a rare duel in the air to Święcicki, and this was enough to let Horst Friedrich Dalen in with a thunderous volley that left
Jānis Salmiņš rooted.
The Birds were if anything even more fired-up to make good on this equalizer, and
Moey Xin Seng would take it upon himself to do the dirty work. A frenetic sequence of short passes about United's final third saw the Grilled skipper edge ahead of Sim Chin Chi to put a chip in, and while the United defender cried foul at an apparent jersey tug at a critical moment, the referee would side with the visitors on this occasion. Chvátal took it particularly badly, and would eventually be booked for blatant dissent.
In any case, United had more urgent matters to occupy themselves with, as Grilled Birds refused to let up. Cognizant of just how tenuous their leads had proven to be against this side, the Birds would drive for a fourth goal with renewed vigour, and Man-Shik So would have to save from Mudaliar and then Chu within minutes of each other.
Chan Ze Han proved more lethal than both the above, as he cushioned
Kalle ter Berg's hard-hit through pass with an almost lazy assurance, before finally arcing it over the former South Korean international.
It was down to -= Manchester United =- to chase the match to its conclusion once more, and it might be said that Grilled were right to have gone for insurance here. United went from seemingly accepting their fate, to really turning the crank in the last ten minutes, and
Heng Dong Chu's entry for Kalki would not prevent Lucio Reascos from reducing in injury time. With Kool tacking an additional two minutes onto the original three, it would be a nailbiter for the Birds, and
Eren Serpin's exaggerated sigh of relief at the final whistle could not be hidden.
