Safety In Sight
This was a much-needed three points for Grilled head coach
Tian Yonghang, as they returned the Birds to the top half of the table, with three rounds remaining. Another win at Queenstown MZKs next weekend should all but guarantee Grilled another season in Division Two, from the fixture list, which is all that Tian wants for now.
"We're always looking at the S-League - and more titles - obviously, but this squad needs to mature a bit more, what with possibly a few major personnel changes scheduled." Tian hinted. "We do have very winnable games against Queenstown and the Tigers in the final stretch, and a chance to test ourselves against a strong Arrogancae side."
Speaking of Arrogancae, they look destined for the title after wiping third-placed Glory Paradiso 4-0 without too much effort, though newbies are newbies did preserve an outside chance of overtaking them, even if they did make harder work of their 2-0 over Queenstown MZKs. Tampines Phoenix F.C. are now all but relegated despite beating The Sing Tigers through Israel Brown's 74th minute poach, in a rough contest that also saw 18 year-old Young Lions prospect Ow Siong Puay suffer a concerning twisted left ankle.
Farmer Bunnies unexpectedly found themselves right back in the championship mix as they collected full points at FC Phondle's The Playground, for which they had
Ong Li Jing to thank for his quick thinking in the 48th minute, after Hanbin Park unexpectedly failed to hold on to a tame attempt by
Lau Keng Kwang. Italian newcomer
Arturo Rosano may be out for a fortnight or more, however, after landing heavily on his left knee six minutes from full-time.
This came alongside former leaders kaloons dropping two points against Mangrove Pittas, who came back twice to force a 2-2 draw. FC Jurong Rovers thus took over at the top by thrashing Pasir Ris Warriors 7-0 to stay a point ahead of the Buns and kaloons, with Really McCoys just one more point behind, as they put Livernuts away by the same margin.
"It's really anybody's game right now, and we do have two tough fixtures coming up." Buns skipper
Dušan Václavík said. "But so do the rest really, and I would say that we have as good a shot as any of the other clubs!"
There would be no such anticipation required of Grilled International, who marked a seventh straight victory with their 7-0 over Swiss semipros AC Rabissale. The only stimuli would be supplied by
Chua Jun Long's double giving him a three goal lead in the Golden Boot race, with
Egidius van der Duin and
Umut Koza his closest competitors.
Leri Bezhanishvili is in fourth on nine, but remains a dark horse thanks to the possibility of multiple penalties and free-kicks to come for International.
International will put it beyond all doubt if they win against bottom-placed Baboon Show St. Pauli next Saturday, and try as they might, even the most cynical of their fans could not imagine a scenario where that will not come to pass. "This is it then, I suppose we are really going up." one wit wrote on the club's online forum. "I'm doubling up on my scratchcards this month."
