Moement of Glory
The Ox Lifts
The Birds flattered to deceive back home as they rushed to a quickfire 2-0 lead against the visiting Moeinsingapore, before getting absolutely demolished for the rest of the contest.
Chan Ze Han did record his century league goal after 291 starts for the club, but as he remarked afterwards, he had hoped that it might have come under happier circumstances.
Given that even a much-stronger Grilled side had lost both their meetings against the rising Pasir Ris club last term, few could be expecting much; that said, Moeinsingapore had started the season quite disappointingly with straight losses to Ang Mohs and then Arcturules, and just been knocked out of the Singapore Cup by Phantasm Hotspurs. Their trinity of striking stars aside, this gave hope to the Birds fans that they might take something from these, and the first ten minutes had them daring to dream of much more.
It could not have gone any better for
Chan Ze Han, as
Chad Thach advanced cautiously for the ball, after Grilled had recycled possession back into their own half with the Moeinsingapore team content to bed in. A canny flick with outside of boot saw it curl around Juan Camilo Rengifo, however, and the Moeinsingapore skipper soon realized to his horror that Chan had gotten the drop on him, from the inside. The final touch was close with Chan, Rengifo and goalie Dariusz Rzepkowski coming together all but simultaneously, but Chan would edge it by a split-second, to poke it on and over the line.
This was beyond what most of the home support had expected, and their wildest expectations were then surpassed, as
Moey Xin Seng ran away with it on the right side, after
Bilal Mohammad Harun helped a lob out of defence on. That was about as high as the crowd would get, looking back, as reality began to bite back. It was rather too early for the Birds to try and turtle their way through, and in any case their lead would be cut by the 13th minute, which was when Rengifo made up for his earlier error, by exploiting one by Grilled's own back two.
Moeinsingapore were hardly to be outdone in terms of combativeness either, and Grilled were perhaps fortunate to have gotten away with
Gilbert Webb's slip three minutes later; had the recovery been a bit slower, it could well have been Chua Chu Meng to score, instead of getting booked for a late stamp on Webb's ankle. Michael Hajer would equalize on a counter by the 31st minute nonetheless, and after a failed free-kick at the other end, Yang Feng Da would bully
Bhavya Panigrahi out of the way to his own rebound, after a first attempt was blocked sideways with great difficulty by
Manuel Vadalà.
If the first half could be said to have possibly gone either way, this certainly did not apply to what came next. The visitors realized that they had probably been too wary and passive before, and once they decided to take the initiative, it was over for the Birds. Thach and Lim would be virtual non-entities when Moeinsingapore's midfield made their pushes, what with
Aw Keng Chuan doing his level best to hang with Michael Hajer - not always successfully - as the game opened up. Paco Pimentel would be released down the left channel as Hajer reversed the direction of the attack in the 54th, and Abhishek Gupta brought it down classily with his chest, before making it 2-4.
This then got much worse, very quickly, as Moeinsingapore scored thrice more in the next fifteen minutes, to put the game way out of Grilled's reach. Yang would bag the next on a vigorous counter as the Birds dallied too long without chancing a forward thrust, with the backline caught flat-footed. Next up would be Swedish winger John Kennea as Pimentel's cross went long to him, and Chua Chu Meng found the seventh by the 68th minute, as Moeinsingapore flaunted their clearly-superior effectiveness in possession, before concluding it with a coordinated rush across the front, and chip.
Another unwanted record appeared within reach now, but for whatever reasons, Moeinsingapore would step it down a notch after this. Thanks to that, the Birds would limp to the finish without further incident, with a little twist in the tale to come, after
Hwang Teck Fu and
Prokop Mottl had entered the fray in the last couple of minutes. There seemed little consequence as referee Toomas Hallop blew for a minor foul some forty yards out, but
Bhavya Panigrahi saw nothing to lose in trying to catch Rzepkowski out - and it transpired that the Polish custodian had indeed gotten a bit complacent, in ranging far from his line. Hardly one to turn the match around, but it did bring some cheer to the glum-looking fans, at least.
