Getting Away
Final Setup
Downtown club-in-turmoil ggttbtbyny were not expected to test Grilled Birds even at home, and indeed they did not, as the Birds made their penultimate step towards promotion.
Gústav Thoroddsen would be restored to the lineup after a week in exile, and he - alongside
Chad Thach - would justify their selections with two apiece against a doughty but overmatched ggttbtbyny side captained by fishmonger Gan Sze Boon.
That Thach did not claim his first career hat-trick, then, could be attributed to the stubbornness of ggttbtbyny's right post, which stood between him and a near point-blank conversion in the sixth minute, with goalie Shankar Raikar already helplessly grounded. The hosts actually went beyond themselves to frustrate Grilled until the 27th minute with their defense in numbers, but that inevitably left the Birds with free pickings at the head of the penalty area - and
Brian Reddy was too good to miss the bottom left corner then.
It might yet have remained exciting for a time had ggttbtbyny made the most of one of their most exhilarating raids in many a week, which had teacher-by-trade Chiang Fu Choon shame a lazy Reddy to rush clear down their right flank. Jake Chang couldn't keep up on what was a very viable breakaway, sadly for them, and it was 2-0 after
Gústav Thoroddsen followed up on
Damian Hutter's long ball reply. Three minutes later, the Birds would be four up, as Hutter racked up a second assist knocking it down for
Chad Thach from a corner, whereupon Thach took it upon himself to go for broke on a superb flying take.
The Number 22 had easily been Grilled's midfield standout of the half, and he will be banking on this display to get himself more time in the first team, after but a single league start in the latter half of this season. His second half wasn't far behind either, but it was the time for others to shine;
Evandro La Face came on for an oddly-anonymous
Orest Tokarz, and ggttbtbyny did not have much time to consider the implications before
Egemen Dinçer Ferzan nearly lobbed Raikar from fifteen yards.
Grilled's metronomic movement took its toll on defender Spencer Xiong eventually, as he went down with an overtaxed right ankle in the 61st, and had to be replaced by Ho Kian Tong. Not that it made much of a difference, with
Evandro La Face making the chip that Ferzan didn't, 67 minutes in.
Mohd Marzuki Khairul then upped the score to six with a slow-boiling dribble after 76 minutes, upon which Raikar had his moment by flinging himself across goal to keep
Phua Ming Xin's wicked free-kick out. La Face went hard at the ensuing chance, but only succeeded in retiring Choo Chang Ah by coming in second in the race, for which he copped a yellow card.
Tanner Vong did not seem entirely unhappy to come on, but hardly got a touch as the Birds continued monopolizing the ball. This led to
Gústav Thoroddsen making it seven in a jiffy as he made the most of his intuitive understanding with
Lim An Keng upon the start of Lim's waiting pattern, and the game would end with a late double substitution giving
Chan Ze Han and
Gandhik Chitre an appearance apiece.
