Not In My Home
Sheer Marzuic
Grilled Birds responded to an early scare from an otherwise-rudderless MyTeamName, to prevail 8-1 - and mostly in cruise control. While
Phua Ming Xin continued living up to his inferred promise by scoring for the third match in a row, the day belonged to
Mohd Marzuki Khairul, who grabbed his first professional hat-trick... and then one more, for good measure.
Having garnered just one point from their first four fixtures, MyTeamName were not expected to pose much if any of a threat at The Cooking Pot, what more with a provisional squad of volunteers after having fallen foul of local financing regulations. Birds head coach
Tian Yonghang was not prepared to go easy on them, however, not after his side's multiple slip-ups already this season. Still, this fixture would see some lesser-seen personnel in the league, with it largely comprised of what might be considered Grilled's second string.
This selection remained comfortably sufficient to deal with the visitors in theory, with their biggest stars being college representatives Saiful Zaman Rustam and Smaran Krupakaran, neither of whom were particularly recruited. Even their early vigour could be dismissed as poor pacing for which they would eventually pay, but this could be of little comfort to
Damian Hutter, whose confidence appears shattered after his several oft-reprised errors of late. For all of MyTeamName right winger Ravikumar Damodar's deficiencies, he retained raw pace in abundance, and this was enough for him to rush past Hutter in the ninth minute, to place a grounder beyond
Dimitris Germanakos' reach.
The Birds at least did not give their fans the time to turn negative, as they strung together several incisive passes from kick-off, concluding with
Mohd Marzuki Khairul burying a fairly ordinary effort past 19 year-old goalie Yeoh Ze Sze. That must have given Grilled's players a hint, as they would then test the unsteady-looking Yeoh whenever they could. By the 24th minute, both
Phua Ming Xin and
Paulino Trindade would see their shots get past him, and the 30th minute brought a double whammy - first, a handball penalty converted cheekily by
Atang Mangoye down the centre, and then another from Marzuki, after he had been left unattended on Trindade's approach up the left.
5-1 it was then, and with the three points surely in the bag, Tian could afford to experiment in the second half.
Mohsen El Khateeb would be given his minutes in place of Mangoye, with Tian seemingly retaining faith in Hutter - whom, to be fair, had next to nothing to do after that early mess-up. The captain's armband went then to
Enrique Baena, who looked positively delighted at the honour.
Hutter would be able to regain some belief soon, by sticking it in the net in the 62nd minute, as Baena supplied him from the right wing. MyTeamName's early overdrive would start to get to them now, and striker Ting Feng Hao would go to ground in obvious pain in the 67th minute, having overextended his right knee in attempting an unlikely interception. Ouda Adam replaced him as soon as it was clear that he could not continue, but by then Marzuki had completed his hat-trick, with a routine charge straight through.
There would be more to come from the national youth representative, as he put in a fourth following an exciting dribble, five minutes later. Grilled could conceivably have gotten it to ten, but
Hwang Teck Fu smashed it into the side netting with Yeoh not guarding his near post properly in the 78th minute, while Hutter would have most of the goal to aim at in the final minute, but put it well wide from under ten yards.
