Croft Outcrafted
Teo Still Having It
36 year-old veteran
Teo Chuan Yong served notice that he would be competing for a starting spot - and set-piece duties - for the upcoming season, with two goals and a quite complete all-around game, in the first half against English Division Five visitors Croft Town. The Birds had of course already won 5-1 in Yorkshire last week, so the scoreline was probably not too much of a surprise.
Croft Town boss and former Northern Irish international Rhys Blanchfield stuck with the same lineup for the return game, though they did make up in composure and resolve what they had lacked in true quality - for about half an hour, at least. Robby Charles, who had done so well up until then, would finally give away a free-kick just outside the penalty area in falling for Teo's sidestep, and the Grilled Number Three would claim recompense by himself.
It would be another foul six minutes later, this time marginally inside the box;
Egemen Dinçer Ferzan had employed his slippery movement to great effect especially against David Sullivan, who brought the Turkish winger down unwittingly. There would be some discussion between Teo, Webb and Ferzan about who should do the honours, and in the end Teo strode up to hit it past Steve Harper, who went the right way but not soon enough.
A third would arrive via
Prokop Mottl's quick thinking at the far post in the 40th minute, after
Paulino Trindade had broken away down the left side. Webb himself would be called upon from open play as he rushed up in support of an early Birds interception from Croft Town's messy restart, but this time Harper would do his club proud, by throwing his hands up in a flash to ward off Webb's rising scythe.
Teo's bid for a hat-trick was not to be, alas for him, as
Tian Yonghang saved his legs by bringing
José Luiz Velho on at half-time - which might have been for the best, for what transpired towards the end. Despite some bright running by Trindade early on, it was the visitors who wrested control of the flow soon, and Scott David would punch the ground in frustration after being slow to get to Robin Carvell's breakthrough and prospective assit. They continued cranking the wheel, though, and John Norman would force it past
Manuel Vadalà in the 69th minute, amidst chaos in the Grilled box.
Tian had seen enough, and made to refresh his team's play with a double substitution in defence, with both Mangoye and Webb off, and the new pair of
Radovan Jaška and
Mohsen El Khateeb on. It was not clear if that contributed to
Hwang Teck Fu's goal on the Birds' next push upfield, to be frank, which had Ferzan do most of the work spreading the defence on the right.
Grilled would then see their numbers shrink, with Mottl eating an inadvertent elbow to his chest in the 80th minute, which had him breathless and taken off for safety. Croft Town weren't about to be overly apologetic at that, and reduced further through Scott David as they slung several neat forward passes together.
Radovan Jaška's near-miss would see
Mohd Marzuki Khairul off next as the local national youth team prospect strained his neck on the attempted finish, but Velho would then do the trick for a nine-man Grilled, as he ran smoothly onto
Chia Kwang Tse's through ball.
