The New Him
Raúl Justice
There's nothing in Jurong quite like a Birds-newbies derby, and this 38th edition would be remembered as the Himadas one, after the Grilled defender struck a hat-trick in a 5-3 home win. This was certainly a welcome change of pace for the Birds after losing the previous two handily, with the treble also the first since Rinor Isufi managed the feat 31 seasons ago in II.1, despite the historically high-scoring nature of this fixture.
All the talk before kick-off was about Grilled Birds' debuting
Genki Nagano, however, with the incoming Arcturules man starting in defensive midfield in
Aw Keng Chuan's usual position. While
Gandhik Chitre had been ruled out through suspension, most had thought Genki likeliest to replace
Raúl Himadas at the back... which was soon shown to be a questionable arrangement.
The visitors had a full first-team squad to pick from for this, and having won all five of their most recent league fixtures - and eight of nine since their only defeat of the season, to FC Barca Singapore on the opening day - there was every reason to expect the league leaders to be a stiff test for Grilled Birds. The last clash at The Cooking Pot had of course seen newbies humiliate the Birds with a 6-1 whipping, and head coach Kwok Wan Yau kept much the same approach, while swapping a few personnel around.
The match would start quite differently from then, granted, and
Lim An Keng would quickly indicate the Birds' newfound resolve, with a monster of a right-footer that rocked Romeo Gasparroni's goalframe after merely three minutes. newbies seemed to have escaped paying for their early disarray, but then English fullback Elijah Gardner raised his leg high to contest a lob towards
Hwang Teck Fu. Gardner realized his mistake too late as Hwang reeled away clutching his face, and
Raúl Himadas put the penalty away after Finnish referee Ville Suoniemi gave it.
Turning point number one arrived as a spirited
Genki Nagano rampaged upfield in the 13th minute, only to have his drive saved by Gasparroni, and Gardner then redeem himself by scoring on the counter. newbies regained a large measure of self-belief with that, and Grilled began to flounder once they resumed their flexible passing game. Zhong Kim Tse's flat lob would be pushed onto the bar by the edge of
Radomil Marcol's palm, but there was no stopping Chen Meng Heng from feeding on the rebound to give newbies the lead!
The rest of the half hardly went well for the Birds either, as
Brian Reddy went down hard trying to shadow Li Choon An in the 32nd minute, which had
Paulino Trindade get an in. newbies would not be unscathed either with up-and-coming 21 year-old playmaker Ghani Zakwan seemingly tweaking his left calf several minutes later mid-dribble, but Zakwan would be able to stay on following the application of some magic spray by his medic.
Veteran striker Wan Wadi Syarif would be off at half-time, with the legendary Number Eight not having made as much inroads into the Birds defence as his coach would have liked, and 18 year-old Aw Da Hui made his away league debut to great fanfare from the visiting section. While clearly not the most polished forward, Aw had bags of energy to spare, and his making a nuisance of himself would grant Au Kong Su a look at goal 57 minutes in. Au made the most of it with a ripping half-volley that Marcol couldn't get to, and newbies were 3-1 ahead.
An ignominious repeat of the last game felt possible now, but for the eagle eyes of the referee, who spotted
Chad Thach's header brush off Volkert Eutiner's lower arm in the 63rd minute. Suoniemi would ignore the furious newbies team swarming him after pointing to the spot, and Himadas would once more stare Gasparroni down from twelve yards. He went for the other corner this time, low to Gasparroni's left, and caught the goalkeeper second-guessing himself into being far too late to make his dive.
Grilled were still behind with time running out, but they did have momentum - and the crowd - back on their side. They might not exactly be winning possession, but the Birds were being decisive on the attack, and
Chia Kwang Tse put a good header barely wide after
Paulino Trindade's approach in the 73rd minute. That only encouraged them to double down, and
Raúl Himadas duly tied it all up with a precisely-placed shot from just outside the box, after 79 minutes.
That made just Himadas' second career hat-trick, and a famous one indeed.
Tian Yonghang then made a strange-seeming substitution in taking
Darko Andrović off for
Aw Keng Chuan on the left, since it looked like a defensive change on the surface. This turned out to be just what Grilled Birds needed, however, with the Bosnian winger already all but spent after facing Au Kong Su for eighty minutes. Aw would offer a much-needed sense of security on that wing, and
Chia Kwang Tse did the rest, in outpacing Kevin Gibson on the underlap to finally put Grilled Birds back in front.
The newbies contingent were silenced as they watched their title ambitions take a huge hit, and although Kwok tried to rally his players for one more advance, it was the Birds who had victory on their minds now. A second mass push had Chia put it past Gasparroni again for 5-3, and there would be much displeasure when
Tian Yonghang pulled him off for
Kendell El Khateeb in the final minute, preventing him from having a shot at a treble too.
