Pride Of Jurong
Grilled Birds head coach
Tian Yonghang would have a long exchange with his newbies fellow Kwok Wan Yau before the match, and Tian would not be shy in his praise for newbies are newbies afterwards. "They, like us, have carried the Jurong flag for decades." he said. "And today's game is just one more in the long series that we have shared."
On
Brian Reddy and
Mohd Marzuki Khairul unexpectedly heading up the league scoring charts, with
Gústav Thoroddsen stuck on a single league goal, Tian had it as due to the team adapting. "It's a collective effort, and I think Gústav shouldn't be too disappointed. He knows he'll be double or even triple-teamed now, and that has had him lay it off a lot more than last season. If it helps us win, I'm satisfied."
Arrogancae rose to top the table on goal difference with newbies' slip, as they demolished Queenstown MZKs 6-1, if with fullback Faas de Vogt out for a month due to a torn hamstring sustained in an ill-tempered finale. Joker 9 stopped Tampines Phoenix F.C. 4-0 with Nadhir Murad sent off, while next opponents Glory Paradiso cruised to a 9-0 gimme over The Sing Tigers.
A disappointing day for Farmer Bunnies saw them lose 0-1 to FC Jurong Rovers at Carrot Field, as they created a few reasonable attacks from the flanks, only to fall to a Dementiy Muryshkin strike that was just about the Rovers' only clear chance. That had the Buns drop to fifth like the Birds, as kaloons and Really McCoys continued occupying the top two spots by defeating the Warriors and Pittas, 7-0 and 5-2 respectively.
Rovers would stay third with their victory, as FC Phondle overtook the Buns with a 5-0 over Livernuts on a Samir Mirsoliyev brace. Farmer will be looking forward to next weekend at least, with Livernuts beckoning.
Grilled International stopped Elefanten der Wüste's winning run resoundingly in a 6-0 home whipping, which had
Safari bin Hj Jali and
Mohsen Zeynali strut their stuff with a brace each. This was after
Umut Koza and
Remond Bergervoet had laid the foundation with the initial goals, as
Chua Jun Long and
Leri Bezhanishvili spluttered.
There seems no realistic obstacle to International claiming the title now, what with Nice AS five points adrift in third place despite beating AC Rabissale 4-2. Baboon Show St. Pauli cleared struggling Ponyhof 3-0 with all three goals from set pieces, and Dentinhos Int. put some space between themselves and the bottom half of the table, by dismissing SFK Ajaks 3-1 thanks to Witold Dubisz's double.
