Just About Won
Hutter Gets Started
It would be a barely-there three points for Grilled Birds at home against Winnetou Reborn today, despite overwhelming the visitors in terms of raw chances created. Those would have been all for naught had
Damian Hutter not gotten off the ground with his first goal for the Birds, with the 20 year-old Austrian defender settled in decently well on this fourth start.
There would be a couple of milestone announcements before the match, with
Kalki Parvathaneni recording his 300th competitive start for the club, a mark met by only five men - all indisputable club legends - before him.
Bhavya Panigrahi would also make it to his hundredth league start, for which he was also duly saluted by the home ultras. Winnetou professed to be fired up to avenge their 1-3 loss three Sundays ago, but from how Grilled had several of their best crocked then - with
Chan Ze Han still a week away from a return - it was unclear if they should be the more aggrieved.
Winnetou did revert to a more conservative 3-5-2, with Fabio Di Brandimarte's place in midfield filled by Pasquale Spaggiari, and German striker Anthony Schulmeister leading the attack. Former Convicts FC youngster Jeromy Imaya would shoulder the responsibility of tending to the Birds' forwards, with Carlo Monteverde providing some cover just in front of him.
First blood would be drawn by the visitors as they kicked off to a strong start, with Portuguese playmaker Artur Sá making all the right moves, to place Grilled's left defence under sustained stress. This translated into more than a few free runs for Levi Cockman, with
Paulino Trindade often drawn to the inside to help out, which eventually gave rise to the opening goal. Carlo Monteverde was the beneficiary, as his off-balance flying header caught enough spin on it, to take it past a prepared
Dimitris Germanakos.
That had Grilled needing to come from behind against the Holland-based opponents once more, which they managed without too much of a wait, as before. Chan might be badly missed in the attack, but even in his absence, a 39 year-old
Moey Xin Seng remained a sight to behold, once in full flight. The Grilled skipper had only one thing on his mind as he sprang forward concurrent with
Teo Chuan Yong's vital final touch on an ambitious snap pass by
Lim An Keng, and a solid swing of his right leg saw him reach his 150th competitive goal, and 100th league goal, for Grilled Birds.
The Birds would only up the pace as the match meandered towards half-time, with both
Teo Chuan Yong and
Bhavya Panigrahi missing by inches, just after the half-hour. The go-ahead goal would arrive in the 38th minute from an unexpected source, with
Damian Hutter somehow finding himself the furthest man forward for Grilled, as the teams exchanged mass drives down the middle. Hutter would take a moment to steady himself as Martin Křovina came out to meet him, and unleashed a fierce grounder past the goalkeeper's planted left leg.
Křovina had no time for recriminations as the Birds kept on plugging away, and he would have to fling himself across goal to stop
Kalki Parvathaneni just two minutes later, a save that left him winded for a while. That did deliver Winnetou safely to the break, which saw
Bilal Mohammad Harun replace Moey, both as central striker and as team captain, for the second half. It would all be relatively tame, until
Tian Yonghang finally heeded the calls from the fans, and gave
Egemen Dinçer Ferzan his competitive debut.
The Turkish wingman embraced Kalki as he entered in the 65th minute, and wasted no time in getting stuck in on Evgeniy Gladilov, as he chased a long ball to the touchline. His positive temperament was not matched by his judgment, however, as he then mucked up several promising sequences by ball-hogging. It would be
Bilal Mohammad Harun to make his own luck in the 70th, as he ghosted away from Imaya with an impeccably-considered first touch; but the finish could not avoid the upright.
Winnetou had not created much of anything, but with the Birds still hanging on a single-goal lead, there would remain much nervousness in the stands.
Teo Chuan Yong would try to set the record straight, but with Tinguaro Nieva locked onto him, this was never about to be an easy task. In the end, Teo would come off with the match's only booking, as he clattered the Spanish wingback in an effort to recover the ball.