Dragons Downed
An Keng Slayer
The Birds turned dragonslayers as they trounced Singapore Red Dragons 7-0 at Dracarys Arena, although that didn't do much for their paper-thin title dreams with the league leaders also winning. The margin remained something to boast about for the Grilled fans who had made their way downtown despite the torrential rain, as they celebrated
Lim An Keng claiming his second career hat-trick through plain old slogging.
Lim had started the day on the left of attack, with
Tian Yonghang again bringing
Raúl Himadas up to right wing with
Brian Reddy still out, and trusting the just-turned-28
Chia Kwang Tse in defence for perhaps the first time in a league match.
Genki Nagano was selected ahead of
Aw Keng Chuan again as midfield anchor, despite the latter's impressive friendly showing. The struggling Dragons didn't have many new tricks to try out, and Kazakh head coach Berik Dosman kept his basic 4-4-2, which has lost him some support amongst the club faithful over the past months.
The Dragons fans were entitled to their disdain, given their four straight defeats since their Sapphire Challenger Cup semifinals loss to the Birds. It was perhaps the manner of those that stung more than the defeats themselves, with the Dragons letting in 28 goals, to a single reply from Estonian star forward Robert Veerma against newbies are newbies. Veerma was nowhere to be seen today once again, with Dosman apparently sticking to his word in using the remainder of the season to test the rest of the squad.
This was hardly going to go well against a Birds side still chasing results, and Singapore Red Dragons would be 0-2 down by the fifteenth minute, with
Lim An Keng and
Mohd Marzuki Khairul storming their defence within seconds of each other, leaving 18 year-old goalkeeper Jalen Tram looking slightly traumatized. This could have gone to three the very next minute as
Genki Nagano slashed to the right side of the box on Grilled's next possession, but Slovenian fullback Ken Medic put in an important block there.
No turnaround was in sight for the hosts, unfortunately for the Dragons diehards who had come, with Grilled hogging the ball greedily. Parmeet Naik, so often a thorn in the right for the Birds, got past Himadas once or twice to little impact, and Grilled would be three up by the 28th minute thanks to
Lim An Keng's penchant for slipping by the last man.
Hwang Teck Fu nearly reprised the team's earlier double-blow, but Jalen Tram would rise to the occasion with a splendid reflex save.
Damian Hutter replaced Hwang after fifteen relatively quiet minutes at the start of the second half, a period that soon came to an end with
Chad Thach snapping at an inventive
Darko Andrović pass in the 64th minute, and the odd angle at which it came off his boot threw Tram off. The Birds continued to press with the Dragons just trying to keep the scoreline down now, and
Ha Qicai got his first league goal of the campaign 74 minutes in, after Thach had battered the opposition central defence right open.
The travelling fans would then be pleased by a sharp finish from
Lim An Keng following an ill-advised backpass by young Keith Dang 79 minutes in, which meant Lim could keep the match ball. That was also the end of the day for Genki, as
Aw Keng Chuan came in to keep the midfield lively. The Birds duly won a corner kick in the 83rd minute as
Mohd Marzuki Khairul pressed Petr Soukal hard, and there would be a seventh goal from the corner after nobody got a handle on the ball, before it hit the wet ground.
Raúl Himadas would have no personal luck today as Jalen Tram somehow anticipated his excellent free-kick over the wall, sadly, and the goalkeeper would stop Marzuki too as Grilled retrieved it for another go up the left. A short stoppage to allow a winded
Damian Hutter to get looked at followed, and after
Kendell El Khateeb's last-minute entry for Andrović,
Radomil Marcol had his clean sheet come under threat from a superb Raynald Kapuya strike... but the Tanzanian winger's effort went into the left goalpost in the end.
