Dam Hutt Four Hutt
Phua Banged Up
Grilled Birds invited their International offshoots to The Cooking Pot for only their third-ever friendly, some seventeen seasons after their second, and it only got worse for International as they got smashed 7-1. This made an especially rude welcome for goalkeeper
Darshana De Abrew, who had to pick the ball out of his own net continually having just donned the gloves for his new employers, and also for
Phua Li Kong, who lasted barely half and hour before having to go off injured.
None of this was that entirely unexpected given the recent form of the teams, to be fair, and the biggest eyebrow-raiser had to be the four goals from centreback
Damian Hutter, who had claimed just two in all his friendlies for the Birds till today. And in fact, the early going had International being the ones to raise queries about Grilled Birds' preparations, as they savaged the defence despite the unlikely line-leading of
Helmy Syamsuzaman.
Aw Keng Chuan pushed forward all too eagerly in the seventh minute, leaving loads of space for new International Young Player of the Season
Umut Koza to slide onto the end of a clever
Chua Jun Long lob, putting International ahead.
The Birds had to suffer some unsightly finishing too, with
Chad Thach careening a shot off
Tamit bin Said blocking the International goalmouth, when it seemed easier to avoid him, in the 23rd minute.
Darshana De Abrew then got the visiting diehards all hot and excited with some superb anticipation on
Chan Ze Han's free-kick curler, but his skill finally ran out three minutes later, as
Joe Reece dribbled everyone that International threw at him, before burying it hard into the near side of goal.
Quite a lot of International's ability to resist the Birds was indeed attributable to new arrival
Phua Li Kong, who had been omnipresent in destroying many forays by Thach and
Lim An Keng. This came to an end in the 35th, unfortunately for International, as Phua crouched wincing to the ground after sustaining an extra-hard shoulder barge by Lim. This turned out to be more of a problem than it looked at first glance, and
Leri Bezhanishvili had to replace him - and it was no coincidence that the Birds would go in front two minutes later, as
Damian Hutter volleyed home from
Egemen Dinçer Ferzan's probing long cross.
Even the commentators noted that this was out of character for Hutter, whom would have searched for the pass nine times out of ten in previous games. Anyhow, he was back to his old self after the half-time break, with a rash trip on
Egidius van der Duin flirting with a card and penalty, but Faroese referee Dionizy Koś eventually put that inches outside the box. The Birds took their time to get their momentum back, but
Mohd Marzuki Khairul would establish himself against
Mohsen Zeynali on the left by the 57th minute, when he assisted Reece for a third.
It was then, entirely inexplicably, Hutter time, as the Austrian defender somehow discovered himself being the most-advanced Grilled Birds man three minutes later, and went with the flow. The sight of him trying his moves against
Tommy Dongelmans drew some disbelieving chuckles from the Birds set - and even bench, but none could argue with the outcome, as he skimmed the finish neatly past Darshana. There was a lot less to do for his hat-trick goal, with
Chan Ze Han finding him unmarked and calling loudly for the ball, five minutes further on.
The Damian show was not even over yet, as such was the amusement of his Birds mates, that he would essentially serve as a honorary striker for the remainder of the match, with the midfielders picking up his defensive slack in turns. It seemed that it could get very ridiculous indeed when Hutter duly flipped a fourth goal for himself off his forehead in the 71st, but that turned out to be it for himself.
Abdul Hamid bin Hj Ali Timbang and
Sazwan bin Hj Muhd Salleh soon entered for some late minutes, and Marzuki couldn't resist adding his name to the scoreboard with an extravagant incursion entering injury time.
