Orange Newly Blanked
Bhavya Never Too Old
Grilled Birds resumed business with a 7-0 steamrolling of IV.39 opponents Orange Lions F.C. in the Singapore Cup, with 38 year-old centreback
Bhavya Panigrahi claiming only his second career hat-trick - and garnering half last season's goal tally from this single match alone. The Lions had been founded recently by Dutch club V.V. Zoetermeer as their local representatives, and the inexperience told with head coach Sng Aik Keng still experimenting with his mix of wannabe draftees, and a sprinkling of free transfers.
Their record signing thus far - Polish teenager Cezary Sewastianowicz at just under two hundred thousand dollars - would not even make the squad today, as the Birds visited the Lions' Holland Village arena, which attracted close to a full house of twelve thousand despite the unrelenting rainfall. Their league performance had been exemplary, having lost just once and won six after Sng took over the former Tasaki Shinju midway through the last season, and he would suggest a tough contest here today.
This didn't pan out as he expected, alas, though young homegrown forward William Oshiro would scare
Aw Keng Chuan a little, with a fearless early dribble. Grilled would take control after that aberration, and Panigrahi sent the Birds on their way nine minutes in, following a clever little exchange by
Chan Ze Han that saw him lure Jordi Sirolla into a late tackle, despite being boxed in. The position outside the left corner of the penalty area wasn't the greatest, but Panigrahi swung it towards and in at the far top corner with venom, with Mo Woon Kum watching disbelievingly.
Grilled hardly had a monopoly on cunning, however, and it would soon be
Kalki Parvathaneni's turn to feel injustice, as he was booked after opposing skipper Chow Hock Ming made a meal of some regular-looking contact. That didn't slow the Birds on the goal front, as
Mohd Marzuki Khairul blasted it home in the 13th minute, and might even have had another two minutes later, as he went for it with a very ambitious lob from thirty yards, buoyed by his goal.
The wet conditions did cause some actual injuries, as the Lions' left winger Stephon Tan went down in the mud in the 24th, having apparently tweaked his hamstring after slogging on the heavy pitch. Dave Brown came on, right in time to witness
Chan Ze Han pick off a nice through pass by
Gandhik Chitre.
Chia Kwang Tse would need some medical attention 34 minutes in, having strained his neck overreaching for a header, but was fine afterwards.
That was three-nil at the break, and a return to reality for Sng, who couldn't hide his irritation as his team fell further and further behind. They would return with temporarily-boosted organization, which lasted for some fifteen minutes before
Bilal Mohammad Harun broke through for the fourth, which cleared an offside check. That would also be the end of the day's work for Chan and Kalki, who handed their jobs over to
Prokop Mottl and
Moey Xin Seng, for the last half an hour.
It was then the
Bhavya Panigrahi penalty tutorial, which followed a pretty bad dive by North Macedonian youngster Ice Ordev, possibly done out of desperation. Mottl would find himself downed by Gage Richardson in the 75th, and there would be an unlucky handball on Sachin Roy two minutes later. In both cases, Panigrahi would perform a basic run-up, before hitting it straight to the bottom right corner, with Mo going the wrong way twice.
Moey Xin Seng would be first to congratulate his long-time teammate for his hat-trick, but it wouldn't mean that he didn't have his own mission to complete. As it was, he would also find the net holding Richardson off with ten minutes to go, which made it 21 straight scoring seasons at the Birds - a feat matched by few Grilled legends, among them current head coach
Tian Yonghang.
