Secchi Five-One
Mullins From The Left
The Birds' 1-5 defeat to Dark Assassin would be followed by another in this friendly at Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, with Hattrick Anniversary League VII.3869 leaders Overseas Secchi Guys battering Grilled's travelling XI, in what had to be a tremendous letdown for the youngsters. Man for man, they likely had the advantage - without including
Teo Chuan Yong's inclusion in attack for the bulk of the game - but the hosts' far-superior cohesion put them all to shame.
Secchi had demonstrated this in the league with just one loss - narrowly 2-3 away to Botev Pld several weeks ago - in ten matches, and with the tricky Eldine Basil leading from left forward, it was shaping up to be a very bad day for
Chirag Thevar. As before, this friendly would be tailored for trainees Thach, Hwang and Chia to learn, although it would not last long for
Chad Thach, for one.
Muhammad Fraser had already put the hosts ahead in the sixteenth minute through a perfect snipe to the top right-hand corner, when Thach would be engaged in a duel against central defender Roy Jemmott on the attack. Thach would push it forward suddenly and break into a run, to which Jemmott took both ball and man down with a solid sliding tackle, or so it looked. Italian referee Norberto De biagi would confer with his linesman Falco Danhof for some time, before ruling it a foul and yellow card for Jemmott.
In any case, that was the end of the game for Thach, who would complain of a calf concern due to the challenge.
Paulino Trindade, who seems to be rising in the coaching staff's estimation, would come on, and Grilled came close on the restart with
Radovan Jaška sending a curler on target, only for it to be pushed around the post by Clinton Straughn. Secchi took back control following that, and three minutes later would up their lead to two, with Bon Dunwell at the centre of a passing combination that left the defence confused.
The real damage was being done on the left, actually, with Basil's compatibility with Erroll Mullins far too much for Thevar to handle, even with
Enrique Baena staying with Mullins most of the time. The 28 year-old winger would give both the slip in the 26th minute, with their attentions focused on Basil, to then hit it past
Manuel Vadalà for 3-0. Secchi then went for a first-half sub with early scorer Muhammad Fraser off for Jean-Alain Pose five minutes from the interval, despite Fraser not showing any hints of fatigue or injury.
The shift to a 3-4-3 yielded little benefit for the hosts for some time, as their reduced numbers in midfield limited chance creation, although that would be mitigated as the second half wore on. Tian would put
José Luiz Velho on for a hardworking but unimpressive
Radovan Jaška in the 70th minute, which coincided with the Birds' first clear opportunity for almost an hour.
Yee Jian Hui had gone up for a long free-kick, and found himself carrying the ball through Secchi's backline, but Straughn got down quickly to ward his stiff grounder off.
It then swung towards the hosts again, as their added numbers in offence finally paid off. Young Darren Ince settled for a corner against
Mohsen El Khateeb in a chase down the touchline in the 73rd, which was duly scored from by Mullins, off Bob Dunwell's touch on. Roy Jemmott then upped the lead to five goals as Mullin's efforts down the left paid off again, with
Enrique Baena looking positively miserable, as his meager defensive work made for naught.
A penalty would be needed for Grilled to get on the scoreboard, as it had been against the Assassins two days ago.
Teo Chuan Yong would obediently go down after being hacked on the shin by Jemmott, who somehow managed to stay on. With Panigrahi and Webb both absent, there could be no other than Teo to take responsibility for it, and he took a hint from Panigrahi in stuttering his approach, waiting for Straughn to commit himself, before banging it in at the other end.
