Palace Unguarded
Ze Feast Again
Chan Ze Han banged four in the last time Grilled Birds played Cloud Palace, and although he didn't replicate that feat over at Toa Payoh's Djini Arena today, he would still be good for a hat-trick, to send him well clear in the scoring charts. Palace had put out the same team as they had that day - not that they had much on the bench to swap out otherwise - and the incessant rain would not hamper Chan much if at all, as he did his business in the first half-hour.
The home fans knew what was coming, having lost all their matches thus far this season, and scattered ironic cheers would ring out as the Birds took but four minutes to go ahead. It was pretty mundane, really, as Chan split the centreback pair of Ang Shi Yeow and Kee Lai Choon, with
Bilal Mohammad Harun providing the necessary distraction on his right. Hasnain Abdul Muadz Izzul had not excelled at shot-stopping this term, and this would be no exception.
It was Cheng Meng Wan's to be caught dallying on the ball in the 15th minute, with
Egemen Dinçer Ferzan unbalancing him from his blind spot, and the quick assist inside was done right by Chan for 2-0. The next challenge would go awry, though, as
Bhavya Panigrahi barged hard into Choo Jian Long's chest, leaving the midfielder gasping on the grass. It seemed partly an accident as the medics tended for Choo for some minutes, before it was decided to replace him with Mak Tong Qiang. Panigrahi was, of course, booked.
That unpleasantness done with, it would be Ferzan to light it up out wide again, and it would go to
Lim An Keng this time, for his third league goal of the season. Three minutes later, it would be four, as Panigrahi drove an indirect free-kick hard forward in the general direction of
Moey Xin Seng. Moey could not keep control, but got enough onto the ball to guide it in Chan's path, and the captain did the rest.
This had the travelling supporters on their feet, as the 35 year-old basked in his unprecedented scoring form - similar if only better than what Moey had achieved three years ago. The second half would not be as kind to Chan, sadly, despite the entrance of Chia and Kalki providing even more pace. His first clear chance four minutes in would whistle inches over the ball, and developed into a counterattack that Damien Hutter barely cut out from reaching Yusri Dhiya Mohd Amirul Hadi.
The Palace fans still enjoyed that immensely, although a bit less when they were faced with possibly losing another member to injury, with Leong Cheng Hui unable to stand after taking a big hit to his forehead in the build-up. A short wait would see him fully recovered, although he might have regretted not staying down for a little longer, with
Kalki Parvathaneni swinging up the middle to add another to his goal tally.
Hasnain Abdul Muadz Izzul would then have one of his better periods of the match, as he made two fine saves six minutes apart; the first a fingertip effort off Kalki's diagonal screamer, and then later a huge leap whilst backpedalling, to push
Aw Keng Chuan's lob over. Aw was sporting enough to acknowledge it with some clapping, although being five goals up surely made it easier to be appreciative of such.
There would be a final goal in the 76th minute, with a 20 year-old
Enrique Baena extremely deserving of something to show. Having converted to a more mature and cooperative playstyle had cramped his shooting opportunities despite making him much more useful to the team as a whole, and this was acknowledged by his colleagues as they swarmed him following his successful low drive, hit just to the left of Izzul.
