Following A Rainbow
Tokarz & Reese Reprieve
It was all the fans could do to turn up on a grey day at The Cooking Pot, with the club's very future hanging from a thread. Still, it remained a positive sign that the Birds were not yet barred from competitive play, and the players would enter today's fixture grimly resolved to allow the club faithful to forget their off-pitch troubles, if only for a while. This they managed while in cruise control, as they annihilated the visiting Sunrise Treasure FC 8-1.
Although Grilled Birds might currently be under heavy restrictions - extending to the coaching staff having limited contact with the squad - due to their financial exploits, this definitely did not take away from their underlying strength, as Sunrise Treasure were to rediscover. Poh Yong Da would make a return to their strikeforce after sitting the previous meeting out, but neither his presence nor Ow Yong Dong's move to compact his defence made a whit of a difference in the bigger picture.
This was in part due to the Birds now able to play their best eleven without other considerations, and although it took some time to whittle the visitors' resistance down, the dam would break in spectacular fashion when it did.
Phua Ming Xin might have been the focal point of their forward line, but he would quite willingly assume a background role today, as a withdrawn supplier.
Brian Reddy continued shining through on the right, with his excellently-disguised ball on to
Orest Tokarz slammed high into the near top corner after 27 minutes.
Tokarz would bully his way to a second just two minutes later, with young skipper Humberto Dojas having come under Phua's press from his other side. It was then
Joe Reece to take over as he went from nothing to a hat-trick in four glorious minutes, beginning by sliding it through Justin Wong's legs as he appeared to have lost control, in the 35th minute. Fine crosses from either wing then met their match in Reece's brilliant shot selection, as he handled each takedown delicately, before giving Wong no hope.
That had the audience bouncing in the stands, their woes indeed banished, if only temporarily.
Chia Kwang Tse entered for
Chad Thach for the second half as the Birds went through the gears slowly.
Phua Ming Xin was encouraged to shoot having weaved his way almost to the six-yard box in the 52nd, but he sent his lob slightly over, when it might have been better to just thump it.
Dimitris Germanakos would then make his first real save 67 minutes in, as Ermenegildo Densi displayed his potential with a dribble past two Grilled defenders, but Poh Yong Da probably waited a second too long to pull the trigger.
Poh's little scare over, it was Grilled to resume running the score up, with
Brian Reddy trickling a sexy sidefoot home after 69 minutes, which brought some catcalls from the appreciative crowd. Phua then got the goal he deserved with a stereotypical centre forward's header as Reddy returned to being a provider five minutes on, but it was Tokarz's hat-trick that the fans wanted the most - which they got immediately afterwards, as the burly Pole forced his way in, and lashed it into the net with no pretense at grace.
Sunshine Treasure FC would not return empty-handed at least, as they got one back through Poh Yong Da with nine minutes remaining, no thanks to
Aw Keng Chuan standing off him. However, given the circumstances, it was probably a reasonable concession.
