Refresher Six
Au Goes Gold
Grilled Birds have always found the newbies ground a challenging place to take points from, and this 39th derby would have its owners crush them in quite embarrassing fashion. German defender Gregor Epplen made his debut for this fixture at the centre of a back three with head coach Kwok Wan Yau formulating it to collapse inwards on the defence... which would not often be the case in the first half at least. Former national U-20 midfielder Lam Kang Su would be a busy stopper, with returning veteran Koh Jia Woon lasting barely a fortnigh at the club, before jetting off to Chile to join up with fifth divisioners Puerto Williams.
Hein Thiha Pyae Ko would finally return to the starting lineup for the Birds in the league, but it would be another less than glorious day out for the Myanmar newcomer, after he had lost on his debut to FC Barca Singapore.
Chia Kwang Tse and
Chad Thach made for a new-look midfield, with the inclusion of the off-form
Mohd Marzuki Khairul and benching of
Darko Andrović suggesting to some that
Tian Yonghang's mind was on other, cup-related matters.
They weren't wrong, from how the game developed. Grilled would never look comfortable without
Aw Keng Chuan backstopping their midfield, and the absence of captain
Ha Qicai for
Genki Nagano had their backline suffer miscommunications at times too. While they sort of managed for the first twenty minutes, there was no question of them gaining the initiative; and after Tan Chu Chao had torn up their backline with a sizzling dribble in the 26th minute, Au Kong Su would finish it up despite Tan dragging his shot across to the left.
The Birds were completely all at sea now, and an ill-advised attempt at creating an immediate equalizer would see them shorthanded at the back. Li Choon An's swirling knuckleball from the head of the box came hard off the crossbar, and
Radomil Marcol could hardly count himself unlucky as Tan Chu Chao pounded the rebound home - not when he would let Au's sliced drive past him at the near post, as newbies came at Grilled again seconds after another dismal kick-off.
The gallery didn't miss the opportunity to taunt the visiting Birds, given all the history between the teams and spankings that had gone the other way, and it could have deteriorated further had
Genki Nagano not taken it upon himself to settle his teammates back down. newbies for their part didn't press him and Himadas too hard as they stroked the ball between themselves at the back, with the tempo dying down to a walk by the time Ivorian referee Valentin Foé blew for half-time.
If Grilled Birds had thought that they had been let off, they would be badly mistaken, as newbies exploded again after the interval. They gave every indication of being satisfied with their three-goal lead for a couple of minutes... before Li Choon An absolutely skinned
Paulino Trindade in a close-quarters duel on the touchline. There was nobody to slow Li as he charged straight down the right wing, and his cross to Au Kong Su was perfection - hat-trick, then!
The home crowd had not yet retaken their seats when newbies went five up, with Grilled looking all but beaten at this point.
Brian Reddy all but gave up after his attempted feint was anticipated by Tan Chu Chao, and Chia couldn't get close to the veteran left winger as he beat a winding course towards goal.
Hein Thiha Pyae Ko's tackle came too late, a full second after Tan had hit his inbound pass onto skipper Ghani Zakwan's stronger left boot.
This was certainly shaping up like the 1-6 humiliation at The Cooking Pot two years back that had Li Choon An take the mickey out of a very poor Birds lineup, and the question was whether Grilled could even wangle a consolation today. Well,
Brian Reddy had never been afraid to try low-percentage passes in his 35 years, and he was not about to stop today; he dug out a wild lob despite being smothered by Elijah Gardner in the 57th minute, and it would magically home in on
Gandhik Chitre - who didn't pass up the opportunity to glance it past Romeo Gasparroni from inside the six-yard box.
That was manna to the long-suffering Birds fan contingent behind the goal, who had been seated glumly for nearly the entire proceedings thus far. Hein's booking for contesting a throw-in going newbies' way would be appreciated by them too, and there would be more to savour some six minutes later. Gardner's snipe from eighteen yards would be well parried by
Radomil Marcol, and after Lam Kang Su waited too long for his defenders to make themselves available,
Chad Thach nicked the ball off him from his blind side, and polished off a second after a quick sprint.
newbies would get the last word, however, as Grilled got a little too loose chasing a third for a completely improbable comeback, which left them outnumbered in their own half again after Chia lost the ball trying to work his way past Zakwan. Zhong Kim Tse smartly sidestepped to the inside of Genki in preparation for the through ball he wanted, and his finish past Marcol was pure class.
