GG Bye
Paulino Comes Of Age
Few amongst the close to fifty thousand attendees had expected ggttbtbyny's squad of neighbourhood braves to put up much of a challenge at The Cooking Pot, and that they kept the Birds to seven goals had to be accounted as an achievement in itself. It definitely didn't seem like they were going to be able to keep it down as Grilled ran riot over the first ten minutes or so, and in the end it was
Paulino Trindade who would overcome with a career-first hat-trick.
Ibnou Balde's departure would be a haunting reminder that nobody's place was truly secure in the Birds setup, given his undisputed potential. Given this, Trindade had to figure that he was one of the closest to the cliff's edge, of the remaining players - but another former headliner could feel himself under threat too.
Phua Ming Xin might only be 22 with a 0.83 goal per game scoring clip, but from how the spotlight has shifted to Thoroddsen, Reece and La Face, he might not even make Grilled's best strike trio today.
Phua's reaction to flipping
Lim An Keng's casually-hit ball over the top past Shankar Raikar with his first touch of the match, then, brought evident relief to his face - and was just what the Birds wanted with the visitors abandoning any pretense at attacking ambition. Collapsing in on their own penalty area didn't have the impact they had hoped for, as
Aw Keng Chuan made full use of the room he had just outside, to fire a second goal into the net just four minutes later.
It could have gotten ugly fast had
Joe Reece's flying interception on
Ha Qicai's well-weighted free-kick found its mark next, but Raikar got lucky on that occasion. ggttbtbyny muddled along after that close shave, with bookkeeper Lee Chee Da doing his level best to keep it tight in midfield. He would not succeed for long, as Trindade came good from successive crosses from either wing about the 20th minute for 4-0.
With the points sewn up early,
Damian Hutter relieved
Aw Keng Chuan for the second half, which got off to a turbulent start as Chiang Fu Choon's incessant badgering of Trindade on the left got too cynical for Spanish referee Al·lodi Freixa to ignore. It was a yellow, then, but still it spoke well of ggttbtbyny's stomach for the fight. It would take more than that to deny
Gústav Thoroddsen in the 56th, unfortunately for them, and once the Icelander bypassed Xie Chao Da, it was all over.
Understanding that goal difference might well play a role in the destination of the title, Grilled refused to let up on the pressure, but their opponents were deploying the low block tolerably well by now. 18 year-old student Raja Hakim Mohd Rusydi acquitted himself adequately in keeping the Birds' defenders honest too, and this left them with few clear openings until
Lim An Keng's lob that went slightly over, in the 75th.
Joe Reece would finally open his league account for the season five minutes after that, as he signalled early towards
Egemen Dinçer Ferzan, and put himself forward for the ensuing crisp pass inside.
Phua had a big chance 84 minutes in as he walloped a free-kick over the wall with
Ha Qicai stepping over, but Shankar Raikar had the few visiting supporters bouncing with his incredible agility to keep it out. The corner went nowhere fast too, but Grilled had the reserves to keep the clearance in play, and
Paulino Trindade went over the moon with his hat-trick after
Lim An Keng lumped it back at him.
Chad Thach was probably trying too hard with his running deliberately into Jake Chang to try and win a penalty after that, which had the national team hopeful join Chiang in the referee's book. Now seven up, Tian felt it safe to give
Chan Ze Han and
Evandro La Face a few minutes to strut their stuff, although neither got much of the ball before the final whistle.