Down To The Wire
The defeat sees -= Manchester United =- move level with the Birds on points, and while Grilled remain in fifth place, their position is far more precarious than it looks. Robbie Football Club will almost certainly win their final match against Crypto Moon and end on 17 points, which means that Grilled will have to at least equal United's result next Sunday, to avoid automatic relegation. This might not seem too hard... were it not away at a Sarcastic Fringeheads side still with an outside shot at the S-League title.
Fringeheads have set themselves up nicely with a 2-0 away win at Random Curiosity FC today, in which the league leaders also lost influential midfielder Ingvi Grétarsson. As such, it will be a winners-take-all finale at Villains Arena to come, after the latter took care of RFC by three goals to one. A draw however will see Fringeheads steal it assuming they do beat Grilled - which one has to suppose they are the favourites to do, at this point. As for Haha, other results mean that their faint hopes for a double are no more despite crushing Crypto Moon 4-0, although they were hardly realistic anyway.
Hilal Bakhtiar vowed to give everything he can, for the upcoming test. "Sure, the best we can achieve is a qualifier, but it's not like we can be anywhere near certain of that if we play it safe." the head coach said. "Whatever happens, it has been a honour to coach this side."
Farmer Bunnies continued their winning streak by mastering headache 3-0 at home, with
Xue Kangfang,
Vitaliy Efendiev and
Richard Agyei scoring, the latter two leaving it to the last five minutes. Sadly, Kungfu 11's 1-0 at Team Boba thanks to Alex Duncan's sixth minute penalty conversion means that they have secured the III.9 title, with a game to spare.
"It's disappointing, but we have done our best most days." defender
Sunil Patel reflected. "I think the team's coming together nicely again, and the transition from the retiring seniors is going well. We will be a year older and wiser next season, and even better prepared."
28 year-old former Vietnamese international
Nguyễn Văn Chương would raise some worries when he stayed down after taking Marcin Szymczuk's heavy challenge late in the match, but the most recent reports are that he will be out for only a week at most - surely a relief before the Buns' big game at Kungfu 11.
Grilled International concluded their Battle for Division IV campaign on a high, although their final 3-2-5 record remained underwater. The hard-won 4-3 result against French IV.4 representatives Funs of OL did tease at some promising signs, key among them
Tibor Atzenhain's deadliness when turned on. If Fausto Perono's exit had left the club with a gaping vacancy for their main man up front, Atzenhain's form suggests that he may well fill it.
