Regency Rained Out
Bak But Less Forth
Grilled Birds returned to winning ways with a decisive 6-2 home result over Clementi newcomers Bukit Regency, who would find the very heavy pitch at The Cooking Pot not to their liking - at any rate, less to their liking than the hosts themselves.
Gandhik Chitre would probably have preferred drier conditions for one, but the suboptimal conditions wouldn't stop him from scoring twice while making a right nuisance of himself.
Fresh off a whipping by Skylla Lusaka City and a downer against Singapore Red Dragons, this was a Birds side that had reason to be self-critical, although Bukit Regency were not about to skimp on the wariness; having held Grilled Birds 3-3 at home in the reverse fixture, their Romanian head coach Cătălin Ciuşleanu had suggested that there was no reason why they couldn't repeat - or better - that, and they would repeat the active press that had proven so effective that meeting.
Grilled were evolving too, granted, but it had to be said that Regency's strategy felt like it was working, for much of the first half. They would be helped by Mark Bak's killer instinct, as the Danish veteran read Thilo Schmuecker's mind to a T, in running into just the right position that the forward wanted during their maiden attack. Supercharged in-your-face marking would carry Regency through the first half-hour next, as Serbian enforcer Aleksa Milivojević oversaw the whole-team effort.
Despite the very promising genesis, Regency were unable to take it as far as they had previously, as Grilled slowly cranked up their possession advantage, with their high-percentage passing game wearing the opposition down faster than they might have realised. This was one of the lesser-realised impacts of the muddy ground, as 35 year-old Finnish sweeper Harri Sirkka might have discovered only when
Gandhik Chitre went for broke with his 36th minute run. There was nothing for it as Chitre capped it off with a wonderful drive, with Jakob van de Edelweiß booked into the bargain for an ill-advised sliding challenge in from the side.
The half concluded with a very busy exchange starting in the 41st minute, beginning with
Hwang Teck Fu slogging through the middle, and laying it on for
Paulino Trindade to crash it against the crossbar. Wellington Garcés rescued the rebound and curved it down the left channel for Cornelis Pfann to cross, but Elmārs Beresņevs was off the boil today, and was well-covered by
Hong Kang Leong. The ball came back, and this time Chitre would nod
Brian Reddy's deep cross down for
Mohd Marzuki Khairul to volley home!
Bukit Regency's courageous resistance would be much reduced in the second half, and it was Grilled Birds' turn to strike within the first two minutes. Mark Bak neglected to track
Aw Keng Chuan as the defensive midfielder brought the ball up by himself, choosing instead to crowd out
Chia Kwang Tse, and Aw would made Regency pay for this disrespect. He ate up the distance to the penalty area with several large strides, and created space for
Gandhik Chitre to make his way towards the far post, where a single touch was needed to make it 3-1.
The game continued to drift along until punctuated by spurts of sudden action, as in the 64th minute when the generally-solid
Ha Qicai made a glaring mistake, by leaving Thilo Schmuecker unchecked. Aw would luckily cut out Milivojević's attempted through ball right before it reached the striker, and the counter was on.
Lim An Keng wound up being shoved over by Santo Ponzio well before Marzuki could even release his own pass, and
Hong Kang Leong had little problem in waiting for Kenneth Lim to commit, before rolling the penalty home.
Hong lasted ten more minutes before
Tian Yonghang switched him out for
Damian Hutter, ending a day that should partly restore his reputation as a reliable defender.
Chad Thach came on for Paulini Trindade at the same time, which was the catalyst for a roaring finish to the game. The Number Twenty-two wasted no time in getting his shirt dirty, as he slid in to regain the ball after
Gandhik Chitre's dribble had been stopped, before ramming it home for Grilled's fifth goal... barely three minutes after entering the game.
The home supporters had not yet managed to sit down, when
Brian Reddy angled home the sixth, courtesy of
Hwang Teck Fu getting the faintest of contact on Aw's corner. Aw would however then miscue two free-kicks in a row, the second of which would be run back over sixty metres by Hubert Rötsch, who kept his balance excellently on the soaked ground. Elmārs Beresņevs took it from there, and recaptured his early-season form with a very convincing feint to the inside, before overrunning
Dimitris Germanakos.
It stayed 6-2 to the final whistle as
Chan Ze Han replaced
Gandhik Chitre in the final minute of regular time without managing to even get a touch thereafter, as
Chad Thach went for it himself two minutes into added time - and actually wasn't that far away with his rising effort.
