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| FIXTURE HISTORY |
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| Season 74 | W | 3 - 1 | Tournament (Playoffs) | | Season 72 | W | 2 - 5 | Friendly | | Season 71 | W | 3 - 2 | Friendly | | Season 69 | W | 0 - 6 | Friendly | | Season 64 | L | 1 - 2 | Tournament (Group Phase) |
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Testimonial Time
Honour & Celebration
The Birds and Buns would schedule their first friendly in six seasons, as a joint testimonial for the Bunnies' four local veterans, who are either being phased out - or in Lau Chang Wan's case, left the club in search of a new challenge. Neither would skimp much on team strength for such an occasion, although the Birds would offer a couple of concessions, in fielding reserves
Manuel Vadalà and
Radovan Jaška. They would still win, though, as has traditionally been the case in this fixture.
The attendance at Carrot Field might have been slightly disappointing, but from the pre-match statements by
Tham Leng Teck,
Kwek Yun Jie and
Wong Ting Yew - still with foot in brace - they appreciated it nonetheless. None of the trio would start, with
Vishnu Tallapaka instead captaining the Bunnies side at right wing, pitting him directly against
Heng Dong Chu.
Dalibor Kostadinović would be pretty open about desiring a clean sheet above all, and his team would not disappoint in the first half-hour, as they whittled Grilled's chances to almost nothing.
The Birds would, as so often before, slowly tease their way into position, and their first shot on target would be a one-on-one confrontation between two exciting new signings.
Salah Kamel would correctly sense momentary vulnerability in the opposition defensive line, and his forceful advance opened the way for
Abd Hadi Taib Mazhud to shoot freely from near the corner of the six-yard box. The strike was true and headed for the near top corner, but
Gilberto Sorondo flew over to tip it over the crossbar.
That brought much head-patting for the young goalkeeper from his mates, with more to follow as he gathered the resulting corner on a mighty leap, that sent
Moey Xin Seng sprawling into the bargain. Farmer Bunnies would then find themselves going through the centre as
Sunil Patel hit it delightfully from deep for
Vitaliy Efendiev to chase. The Number Nine won out against
Gilbert Webb in the run towards the ball and caught it neatly on the bounce with his instep, but Vadalà came up with a top-class save of his own.
There would be one more clear opportunity apiece for each side before the end of the first half, as
Bhavya Panigrahi drilled a free-kick hard into the last man in the Buns' defensive wall.
Aitykul Zaripbekov wouldn't miss a beat in releasing it long for Tallapaka, whose first touch didn't fail him... but his second touch did.
That would be Tallapaka's last major engagement, as he was subbed out for
Tham Leng Teck for the second half, with
Kwek Yun Jie taking over
Nguyễn Văn Chương on the opposite flank. This was what the home supporters were waiting for, with the announcements greeted with resounding cheers. More stop-and-start play was on the cards as the clubs proceeded cautiously, and another excellent Sorondo stop off Panigrahi developed into a near-miss from
Mushtag Al-Nameeri at the other end.
Bunnies' El Salvador goalkeeper would finally concede in the 66th minute, and to be frank, there are worse outcomes than giving it up to
Chan Ze Han, who took full advantage of a slight hesitancy to clear the ball, in inserting himself for the snap finish. It would be two-nil in the next minute, as nobody got near
Salah Kamel, as he went up for Panigrahi's corner delivery; no keeper was getting to
that.
Farmer Bunnies continued to create the odd counter, but their best chance came and went, as Efendiev glided behind, only to graze the bar. A host of substitutions then took place beginning with
Llamil Vener making a rare appearance as he came on for
Billy Camperio, ending with a triple substitution of
Teo Chuan Yong,
Vikram Mudaliar and
Atang Mangoye towards the end.
