Pointdrop Ducked
Bore Not Draw
Grilled Birds' first-ever encounter with East Coast side Psyduck FC will probably not figure high as a vintage match in either club's history, but the 2-1 scoreline did the job just fine for the hosts. There would be plenty of decent opportunities spurned by the Birds, for which they would have had to take the consequences other times, but they got away with it today.
Damian Hutter made his competitive debut for the Birds with
Gilbert Webb out of commission for the foreseeable future, though
Egemen Dinçer Ferzan would remain on the bench with his form not being acceptable yet. This left
Enrique Baena and
Paulino Trindade manning the wings - which resulted in a very good day for the latter.
Moey Xin Seng would be pressed back into service with options slim, with Teo and Kalki alongside him in a slightly geriatric strikeforce.
Psyduck would have Frenchman Jean-Bernard Levillain beside Lim Min Yeow in their accustomed forward pairing, though with each of them having reaped just a single league goal thus far, it's not been the best of seasons for them - even if much the same could be said for Grilled. The true star of Psyduck's team had to be 23 year-old local goalkeeper John Lowe, that said, with Trev Park seeking to follow in his footsteps from the youth squad.
Much of the early commentary would center around
Chan Ze Han's condition - with the Birds icon understood to still be about three weeks from a return - as the visitors set up to frustrate. The Birds would get over that low-block hump quickly for one, thankfully, as
Teo Chuan Yong wangled a free-kick out of fullback Yaqin Rafiq Atiq. Bharya Panigrahi spent some long seconds considering his options, before fielding it wide for
Lim An Keng to have a pot. The shot wasn't the best, but it served as an excellent through ball for
Paulino Trindade, who thereby recorded the first goal of his Grilled career after 21 appearances.
That was well done by Trindade, whose selflessness had clearly endeared him to his teammates. Psyduck's original gameplan was in a bit of a shambles now, for all of skipper Jonathan Wada's efforts to maintain order, and
Aw Keng Chuan would be set up nicely in the 18th minute, only for Lowe to stand his ground successfully. It would still be two-nil a couple of minutes later, however, as Panigrahi's corner delivery to the far post was headed in by
Lim An Keng, in a textbook conversion.
The home support loved that, but this was probably the high point for the Birds for the day, as their ardour petered out thereafter. Psyduck would pull one back in the 34th minute following a very hardworking run upfield by Wada, who found himself just enough space to squeeze out a lob over
Dimitris Germanakos - who might have been positioned better. Lowe had his part to play with some pinpoint distribution as he gathered from Kalki's attempt right before that, and while
Moey Xin Seng made to respond with a somewhat-forced clip from the restart, that was only too easy for the Psyduck custodian.
Chia Kwang Tse would be on for
Chad Thach at half-time, and with
Kalki Parvathaneni being by far the most productive of the Birds' forward trio from the left, Moey would be an obvious choice to come off in the 75th minute, with
Bilal Mohammad Harun likely briefed to try and get one more, from distance if necessary. The Psyduck defence had Grilled more or less figured out by this time, however, and save for some forays by Baena, there was simply not enough creativity for the Birds to decisively break through.
Teo Chuan Yong would be next to leave, for
Gandhik Chitre to try his luck for the last ten minutes, but Psyduck continued holding firm without too much trouble.
Aw Keng Chuan would put in the only attempt of note right before the ninety minutes was up, but his left-footed swipe under pressure from Giuliano Di Cristofano was weak, and as before no trouble for Lowe.
