Dawn Of Dragons
Roman Standard
New custodian
Radomil Marcol's rude awakening to the Singaporean Division Two scene continued, as the Birds fell 4-5 to Singapore Red Dragons away. It was not like the Dragons were undeserving, granted, but the pain of conceding five - including three straight towards the end - had to weigh on the increasingly-questioned Slovakian.
Grilled had won the reverse fixture 4-2 helped by a
Gandhik Chitre brace, which may have led the Dragons' Kazakh boss Berik Dosman to enter this match with an updated approach. Gone was the conservative 4-5-1 they brought to The Cooking Pot, as they met the Birds like-for-like with three at the top, restoring Madhuban Singh to the attack. Seah Yeng Hock joined them despite being reportedly under the weather, with Sipho Ramasike sacrificed in defence.
Tian Yonghang had made it very clear that he respected the Dragons' strength despite a thus-far uneven season, and veteran midfielder Csaba Báthory-Bozó soon gave truth to his words, as he outshone all and sundry in that department despite being 34 years of age. He would link up with another long-serving star in Peh Da Kong after 19 minutes, bending a pass down the right channel as Robert Veerma made his move simultaneously.
Ha Qicai knew what they were aiming for, but was powerless to prevent Peh from getting the ball across, and Veerma delivered straight to the top corner.
Marcol was black-faced as he collected the ball then, though he could hardly be blamed for not getting to this shot in particular. A second goal was forthcoming for the Dragons, after Tsjitse Westerlaan had put his body behind
Mohd Marzuki Khairul's close-range blast in the 31st. Peh was next to come good as Grilled made a hash defending from a free-kick, and Madhuban Singh nearly added one more from kick-off as he volleyed inches wide from some twenty-five yards.
Chia Kwang Tse would do some impromptu marshalling of the team at that, and it worked beyond his wildest expectations, as Grilled actually overturned the hosts' lead by half-time! It would begin with Chia's own determined run through the middle 37 minutes in, as the Dragons realized they were in real trouble once Chia overran Roman Eloidze ten yards outside the box. David Walsh sprinted across to take Chia on, but that simply left
Paulino Trindade free to waltz in for the finish.
Grilled Birds had not forgotten how to pile on the misery at least, and the kicking of the Dragons when they were down continued unabated. It would be
Mohd Marzuki Khairul's turn to embark on the run as the Birds aggressive stance from kick-off worked wonders, and
Lim An Keng nipped it for 2-2. Then, three minutes before the whistle,
Gandhik Chitre would wheedle a free-kick out of the referee with a convincing tumble, and
Raúl Himadas cleared the wall by the barest of margins, to bury it.
The crowd at Dracarys Arena rumbled at that, and it was a long fifteen minutes for them as Dosman personally ushered his men into the tunnel for a long talking-to. Unfortunately for the home support, this did not seem to have much of an effect; after an interesting but ultimately fruitless free-kick routine three minutes after the restart, Grilled instead extended their lead further, as
Gandhik Chitre caught Tsjitse Westerlaan out of position with his homing missile from far outside.
Radomil Marcol was spotted on camera doing a little jig at the other end, but the egg would be on his face soon enough. While the first two goals from the Dragons might not have been his fault, their third certainly was, as he badly misjudged their ball over the top for David Walsh to chase. On hindsight, Marcol would likely have cleared comfortably had he challenged from the start, but he would instead waver on coming out, and was embarassingly beaten by Walsh after letting it bounce.
His only saving grace was that Grilled were still in front - but not for much longer. After
Brian Reddy was unlucky against the crossbar in the 74th minute, it would be the Dragons who clearly had the better legs going into the final stage of the game, with their midfield having reserved themselves against Grilled's running. 79 minutes in, Robert Veerma would run right at
Raúl Himadas, who could not commit to a tackle before the forward had powered a grounder past Marcol.
The Grilled goalie's self-belief appeared to be completely shot after that, as
Ha Qicai recognized. The Birds captain would try to protect Marcol as far as possible, but there was nothing for it when Roman Eloidze outleapt him for a cross by Peh from the right. It remained to protect the points, and Parmeet Naik did just that with a professional foul on
Chad Thach with the minutes coming to an end.
