Found Out
Raúl Welcomed
Geylang giants Claseek suffered their first Division Two defeat in six seasons at The Cooking Pot today, as an obdurate Birds informed their Italian head coach Riccardo Denti that it wouldn't be all a walk in the park for their excellent if admittedly ageing squad - as their opener against Singapore Red Dragons might have hinted.
Brian Reddy carried on the good work from last Sunday, but it would be
Raúl Himadas to introduce himself properly to the Grilled faithful.
Other than Greek defender Lampros Lithopoulos, Denti had no other injury considerations, and Denti chose to face the Birds head-on in a 2-5-3. German Baldebert Sidal would be started in a withdrawn forward role directly supporting former youth international Chia Yun Yong, who made it his business to engage
Ha Qicai. Chilean midfielder Homero Del Valle would then target
Aw Keng Chuan, who soon found himself very busy plugging holes in front of Grilled's back two.
This led to Claseek taking the lead through Clint Duffy in the 17th minute, as the impressive ex-English international leveraged his intuitive understanding with Del Valle, to pry into gaps whereever they appeared. A clear line of sight would present itself then, after a switch-up by Chan Kong Seng drew
Chia Kwang Tse aside for an instant, and Duffy unleashed with his mighty right boot, to bury a rocket past
Dimitris Germanakos from the right side of the box.
Grilled's seasoned fans were not about to abandon their team just because of that, and the visitors might well have put too much stock in their goal, as they quickly discovered. Falling back on a defensive outlook turned out to be highly inadvisable for Claseek, with Reddy dribbling through a defence that was entirely unwilling to commit, to equalize in the 24th minute. The Birds would overturn the turn by the 34th, as
Lim An Keng pounced on Ivó Jávorszki after he took one step too many, and did the needful with a low drive past Kastus' Liahovich at the first opportunity.
The remainder of the half continued in like fashion with Claseek locked into a reactive aspect, and they would ring up a 4-1 scoreline by the time the young American referee Ty Cobb blew for time.
Chia Kwang Tse got the third after fast one-touch passing in the 38th, before
Paulino Trindade put it narrowly wide after Liahovich parried Reddy's volley attempt next. Trindade was not put down by the bad miss, and happily for him, he would nod Reddy's following cross into the net two minutes later, if mostly due to Geerten Havenaar unwisely sticking out his leg.
For all of Claseek's potential, a three-goal advantage certainly looked like game over for them, and they would not do much to dispute that assessment in the second half. Grilled Birds would continue holding possession mostly contested in the Claseek half despite Denti's repeated exhortations from the sideline, and there would be a penalty awarded to Grilled in the 65th minute, on what seemed like
Gandhik Chitre going over a tad too easily.
Raúl Himadas clipped it onto the outside of the left post with Liahovich guessing right, though, and it stayed 4-1.
The visitors would only go for broke with ten minutes left almost as if by collective understanding, which one of the commentators noted was perhaps due to cognizance of their stamina issues. By the looks of it, Claseek had saved up a lot in the tank, and Grilled were all but blown away when Petar Kerkenyakov led a rush up the left side in the 80th minute. The Birds barrelled heavily to that flank in an effort to stem the tide, which left Chan Kong Seng unattended for a simple tap-in.
One would have expected the penalty miss to weigh
Raúl Himadas down, but as with Hong Kang Leong before him, Himadas was possessed of a bulletproof mentality, and crashed Grilled's fifth goal home from some quick thinking by
Lim An Keng, on a Trindade pass. Baldebert Sidal would however keep matters interesting as Claseek played better than they had all day, with Slovenian left winger Jon Magajna flashing past two defenders on his way to supplying Sidal two minutes on.
Two goals felt like a dangerous lead somehow at this late juncture, which was not helped by Liahovich's heroic stop off
Gandhik Chitre after the latter's magnificent run through Claseek's defence. It then got really exciting with Geerten Havenaar lobbing an overextended
Dimitris Germanakos in stoppage time after the entry of
Damian Hutter and
Teo Chuan Yong, but the Birds would hang on for the three points!
