King Of Goals
If The Hat Fits
In the Birds' third 5-4 win, and fourth 5-4 result in a row, they saw off a spirited Queenstown MZKs at a near-packed The Cooking Pot, to lock in their claim of fourth place. Above that, it was an eminently memorable day for
Lim An Keng, who claimed his first career hat-trick to earn an unlikely share of the league Golden Boot.
It was true that very little was riding on this fixture, given that the visitors would have to beat Grilled by ten goals, to overtake them on goal difference. There might have been some nervous chuckling soon after the commentators had shared this little tidbit in the first minute of the game, though, as Comoros forward Combo M'Madi turned
Ha Qicai inside out with a brilliant first touch.
Hong Kang Leong tried to make his way across, but was nowhere near even when M'Madi had lashed it into the net.
The home fans were understanding enough, and kept up the singing as their players attempted to recover.
Brian Reddy and
Aw Keng Chuan were notable absences due to suspension, mind, which had
Damian Hutter an unfamiliar sight on the right wing. This would not help the Birds' cause much with their midfield redirecting most of their effort to the centre and left following some unconvincing runs by Hutter against Kwek Ho Jie - which had
Paulino Trindade lure Soo Jie into a ninth minute yellow card, for trying to hold up a free-kick.
Kwek would get the upper hand on Hutter going forward too, and after 26 minutes, Queenstown would be 2-0 up with the former Singapore youth international dipping a mighty left-footed effort past Germanakos from distance. That ten-goal target suddenly felt just a teeny bit less unrealistic, surely, all the more as
Hong Kang Leong brought Adem Boğ down on the edge of the box a couple of minutes later. Referee Wu Jingsheng appeared to be thinking about awarding a penalty, but finally gave the free-kick after inspecting the replay. M'Madi cleared the wall with his well-taken strike, but Germanakos saw it coming.
That narrow escape spurred Grilled Birds on in attack, which was all they needed with their midfield actually eclipsing their visitors' by some distance. A cleverly-disguised diagonal ball by
Mohd Marzuki Khairul to
Lim An Keng would allow the latter to catch Romano Santirocchi unaware two minutes after Germanakos' save, and further pressure would see Hernán Fernández del Cerro carded for trying to delay a Birds dead ball in the 36th minute. Del Cerro's sacrifice was in vain, as
Hong Kang Leong lifted it wide right to
Gandhik Chitre, who took it down before chipping Santirocchi with poise.
It was thus all square at half-time, and while the Queenstown supporters might have bemoaned their letting slip a two-goal lead, they could have little to complain about the action on show. The second half restarted with the same frenzied pace that the first had ended on, and nary three minutes had passed when
Damian Hutter was felled near the touchline. Grilled got five men up, before instead switching flanks with a driven low pass.
Chia Kwang Tse provided the assist, putting
Lim An Keng through for a close-up finish.
If Grilled thought that their job was done, however, Queenstown had ideas of their own. True, they were on the ropes after conceding three straight and recording barely forty percent of the possession, but they had some weapons in reserve. Kwek Ho Jie's dribbling was one, as the winger teased Hutter before swinging past him on the inside, and then waited for Phua Jing Wee's support run to catch up before feeding the midfielder. Three-all!
One could barely take their eyes off the contest, as the teams duked it out with abandon, encouraged by the lack of real consequences. Grilled had always liked it this way, though, and a long ball out to Chitre in the 67th minute would have Gavin Rotenberg play it safe with the covering header.
Hong Kang Leong's corner kick was outstanding, unfortunately for Rotenberg, as defensive buddy
Ha Qicai connected full-on with his forehead, for only his second league goal this season.
It was then
Lim An Keng's crowning moment, as
Paulino Trindade continued flaunting his worth with his smooth bypassing of Soo Jie. Federico Parada might be fondly remembered by most of Grilled's fans, but it was Trindade's name that was chanted here, as he bore down on goal with only Rotenberg in the way. His judgment was immaculate too, as he left it for the onrushing
Lim An Keng at the last moment, for Lim to bury his first-ever senior hat-trick.
That took a lot out of the visitors, who really had neither energy or inclination to try and rally against the Birds a second time. Satya Khade did make the most of complacency amongst Grilled's backline following their triple substitution to pull one back in injury time, but it would be same old, same old for the Birds in the end.