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| Season 59 | W | 4 - 3 | League | | Season 59 | L | 4 - 2 | League | | Season 58 | W | 3 - 6 | Tournament (Playoffs) | | Season 54 | W | 4 - 6 | Cup | | Season 51 | L | 3 - 5 | Tournament (Playoffs) |
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Not The Birds Too!
Bilal Letdown
Hilal Bakhtiar's seat would get uncomfortably warm after the Birds fell to their second league loss of the season, this at home to Random Curiosity FC.
Shekar Kannan debuted to face his old club, but was mostly quiet as Curiosity weathered a full-on siege in the second half, to grab their first victory at The Cooking Pot.
Grilled's history with Random Curiosity FC had begun twenty-five seasons ago with a famous finals win for their third Singapore Cup, and their only other official clashes would be five years after that, when both sides were in the S-League. Both happened to be relegated after poor campaigns, and their paths would not cross again until Curiosity lifted themselves back up this term.
Neither have exactly excelled just yet, but Curiosity did have a 3-0 away upset of Fringeheads under their belt - and a 5-0 sweep of Crypto Moon - which had many at Grilled wary despite their defeat to Robbie Football Club last Sunday. Michelangelo Del Riccio would parade a compact 4-4-2 here, as Bakhtiar returned to the Birds' standard 3-5-2 with an emphasis on reinforcing the core. Their not-so-secret weapon for the day was
Shekar Kannan, who started at right wing to some acknowledgement from the travelling fans.
That was a position that Curiosity had coincidentally also shored up recently, with their massive S$24.2 million signing of Albanian international Ujkan Kurmaku.
Heng Dong Chu would not do too badly against him, all considered, and they ironically received most of their breaks against Kannan on the left. Former teammate Lars Eng quite clearly had his number, as in the 13th minute, when he got across Grilled's new Number Eighteen to feed former Iranian U-20 star Falagh Hatami Nia for a cracking opener.
The home fans weren't shy about making their displeasure known any longer, but the Birds would take it in their stride, and equalize within eleven minutes. Curiosity were sitting deep in their two banks of four, with Ingvi Grétarsson and Han De Yeng providing plenty of additional protection, and it would take the combined powers of
Chu Xin Lee and
Abd Hadi Taib Mazhud to unlock them then. A dinky forward chip would be met by Abd Hadi's stylish manipulation of the ball with his sole into the centre, and
Moey Xin Seng needed no second invitation to bang it past Nicola Paladino.
Grilled could have built on that had
Chan Ze Han managed to control Mudaliar's cross a little later, but Mateusz Wentowski's close attentions had Chan's control fail him for once. Instead, it would be Curiosity to regain their lead, as Kannan found himself ill-equipped to confront the Eng-Nakamura tandem. Nakamura would be the one to get through after coming inside in the 30th minute, and
Douglas Carapaica would be cleverly blocked off by Nia, for just long enough for Ang Sze Tze to get his shot off, straight in off Salmiņš' left post.
The rest of the day would be beyond frustrating for the Birds, as they barraged Random Curiosity FC's defence ceaselessly, but without ever finding that critical final application. Holding the ball was not a problem, with
Bilal Mohammad Harun doing a lot of that, but picking out a free man was. Grilled's next great chance would have to wait until the 53rd minute, when Kannan finally wowed with his scorching all comers down the touchline. The cross would be long, but
Heng Dong Chu might yet have done better with it, had he kept his calm.
It would get no better after that, with Mudaliar and Douglas the next culprits; Grilled were absolutely banging on the door now, but Curiosity would survive due to the Birds' players inexplicably being unable to keep it down. Mudaliar's was probably the harder as he ran awkwardly into Heng's lob with Han by his side, compared to
Douglas Carapaica who was left with clear sight of goal in the 62nd minute, thanks to brilliant build-up work by
Chan Ze Han. His knack for scoring appears to have dried up, unfortunately, as he hit it way over.
Neither of these compared to
Bilal Mohammad Harun's angst four minutes after Douglas' miss, though. He would be trusted with the penalty after a clear handball by Will Nolan just inside the penalty area - which the former U-20 defender insisted was unintentional - due to regular takers
Bhavya Panigrahi and
Gilbert Webb being benched. His run-up was not the most confident, and although he struck a respectable effort towards the right post, it was without true conviction and at the right height for Paladino to fist over and out.
Indeed, Grilled were nearly suckered on the ensuing corner kick to boot, as Random Curiosity launched a wholesale counterattack, with their breakout contingent swarming the Birds' hastily retreating rearguard. Nia would bury it in the side netting after being herded wide by
Sølve Lunde, but this would be Bilal's final participation in the game. He had overexerted his right hamstring in the chase back, and would have to be replaced by
Teo Chuan Yong.
Well, it was not as if the Birds' issue was holding on to possession in any case, but Curiosity kept their forwards under very tight watch. Sadly, their next best chance again fell to Douglas, who again traded accuracy for heft, and the desperate insertion of
Kalki Parvathaneni for the last five minutes did not yield any dividends either.
