Thunder Trailed Off
Velho To The Fore
Welsh III.14 team Green Thunder held Grilled Birds off through the entirety of regular time in today's friendly, until
José Luiz Velho broke the deadlock towards the start of extra time. This Thunderside would have young homegrown icon and former national U-20 playmaker Johnny Everton as player-coach, and Everton would disappoint not a few of his local admirers by not naming himself in the squad for the day.
In truth, this was a rather motley collection of reserves shorn of Thunder stars such as Cai Savage, Joshua James and Damian Rees, with 20 year-old Andrew Guy perhaps the hottest name on show, alongside academy buddy Babar Khan in defence. Mark Lutchmiah would captain what was essentially a glorified academy lineup, in a training exercise for the 5-4-1 formation.
This also entailed more-or-less abandoning the right wing for offensive purposes, with Nick Maybery filling such duties down the left, which would soon prove all too predictable for the Grilled players. The visitors would have their moment in the eighth minute regardless, as Kevin Croft managed to get a good distance down the right, with
Enrique Baena having underestimated his skill with ball at feet. Guy would gain a shooting half-chance from some twenty yards out, and didn't hit the target.
It would be the Birds to wrest the initiative after that, as
Gandhik Chitre set the tone with some bold dribbling, if largely suppressed by the opponents' swarming defence. The excitement would peak around the 21st minute, which saw
Hwang Teck Fu slip past several bodies, before forcing Kevan Stewart into a body-block to keep it out. The clearance would be half-hearted, and
Prokop Mottl would steam back into the box from the right wing, to crash the best shot of the day yet into the crossbar.
Tian Yonghang would make a double substitution at the break, with
Chia Kwang Tse and
José Luiz Velho replace Thach and Mottl. Not much would change on the pitch with Thunder continuing to frustrate, and Everton would have to be pleased with their dogged - if negative - play. This degenerated into ill-temper and a spate of cards from the 73rd to 80th minutes, as
Atang Mangoye and
Moey Xin Seng were booked for the Birds, and Mark Lutchmiah for their visitors.
Moey's sloppy challenge would be the sign for him to come off for
Teo Chuan Yong, who would inherit the armband too. This swop would coincide with Grilled making a late bid to claim victory, with Baena setting off on a promising run straight at and then past Croft, in a reversal of their first-half encounter. Baena fired slightly over, sadly, and Chitre wide as the ninety minutes ticked over.
Grilled would not have long to wait to put it in after that at least, as the Thunder backline would finally part, four minutes into extra time. There was some slight confusion as a middling cross trickled through to Velho, who refused to overthink matters and instead stabbed it low past Stewart at the first opportunity.
Yee Jian Hui would have a great delivery cleared in the 100th minute, with Baena carded for simulation a bit later, but that goal proved enough to carry the Birds through.
