Always Original
Chitre Haunts Panjabi
Few could have thought that Grilled Birds would repay newbies are newbies for last week's 6-2 drubbing in kind at the first asking, but this was exactly what happened, as the Birds flattened the visiting newbies 5-1 at The Cooking Pot today. This gave truth to the old wisdom that form and circumstance counted for less in derby matches, as the Birds fans were only too happy to remind their newbies counterparts of.
The supporters were moreover in a forgiving mood given the Birds' Challenger Cup semifinals against Sentoza Springboks in midweek, and there was the feeling that they would accept almost any result if it meant that they would be able to face the Springboks at full strength. Towards this,
Tian Yonghang would rest the recovering
Chia Kwang Tse, while maintaining trust in
Hein Thiha Pyae Ko with a midfield return.
Aw Keng Chuan and
Raúl Himadas were the other notable absences, as Tian tried out the
Ha Qicai and
Genki Nagano partnership at the back.
newbies' Kwok Wan Yau had little reason to experiment given his team's outsized success last weekend, but he would make tactical changes nonetheless, beginning with a narrowing of his back three. There would be plenty of reshuffling in midfield too, with young hope Ghani Zakwan tasked to confront
Brian Reddy directly on their left, and Lam Kang Su likewise moved wide right. There would be no new personnel otherwise, with Number Eleven Au Kong Su reportedly eager to build on his hat-trick.
It superficially looked like a repeat with the visitors getting the better of Grilled in midfield as they had last Sunday, but there was also a real qualitative difference in the quality of their possession. They simply weren't getting it to their forwards, and while Grilled weren't either at this point,
Gandhik Chitre showed his hunger for the game as he dropped deep to retrieve the ball for himself in the ninth minute. He was then past Tan Chu Chao in a flash, and none of newbies' defenders could close him down before he blasted it past Romeo Gasparroni!
This was what the home fans had come for, and Grilled weren't too proud to slow the game when they could, with the cup frontmost in mind. newbies however had no such concerns, and Li Choon An was for one not about to stand for such delaying play, as he brought
Hwang Teck Fu down in the 27th minute. Li might have been booked for that, but from how it led to Lam's swirling deep cross for Chen Meng Heng's volleyed equalizer, he must have felt the yellow card well worth it.
newbies' day took a sharp turn for the worse three minutes later, however, as Gasparroni reared up painfully after rushing to clear a through ball headed for
Lim An Keng. The former Hattrick International champion would cradle his right thigh on the ground, which had Kwok send Kishore Panjabi on after brief consideration.
Panjabi had no idea what he was in for, it seemed, as he had barely taken up position between the posts, when the Birds burst into action.
Ha Qicai had free reign in the centre circle as the newbies retreated, and he would prosecute this withdrawal with a tremendous thirty-yard pass straight to
Genki Nagano, who buried it first time. Panjabi wouldn't have time to recover before the Birds were back in his box again, and it was
Gandhik Chitre to shuffle it into goal this time, as
Darko Andrović's low cross skimmed past the entire defensive line.
That was 3-1, and thus it stayed until half-time with newbies are newbies missing a couple of fair chances. First, they had Au Kong Su turn on the afterburners in an effort to respond to Chitre's strike, but
Genki Nagano stayed with him stride for stride - something that the commentators just couldn't see
Raúl Himadas doing. There would then be a contested free-kick call after slight contact by
Hein Thiha Pyae Ko on an off-balance Chen Meng Heng, but Chen swung his shot narrowly wide.
Still, the two goal lead hardly looked entirely safe with newbies now attacking a lot more, but the fifteen-minute break would mostly reset the game to Grilled's advantage.
Hwang Teck Fu again seemed to be whiling away the seconds in strolling backwards with the ball in the 64th minute... only to suddenly slide it past Zakwan to
Brian Reddy deep in the newbies half. Reddy was put onside by a lagging Kevin Gibson with Elijah Gardner having advanced in support, and there was nobody to stop the 35 year-old winger from scoring his first goal since Haha, three weeks ago.
The visiting supporters had to accept that it was not going to be their day at this stage, as Grilled doubled down on their keep-ball tack.
Raúl Himadas and
Paulino Trindade would ham it up whilst warming up in front of the chuffed home supporters, as newbies struggled to get a grip on the match. After 81 minutes, Andrović spun it up the left channel for
Gandhik Chitre, who duly cut to the inside of Gregor Epplen and drove it hard past a distraught Kishore Panjabi for his third career hat-trick.
The chants for Chitre were still going strong as Grilled stole the ball soon after the restart, with
Brian Reddy's flat cross kept on target by
Genki Nagano with his flying header, only for Panjabi to get to it this time. Genki would then be off for
Raúl Himadas, and Andrović for Trindade. newbies restarted from a goal kick without much rah-rah, only for a red card from nowhere. Referee Fabricio Pino had not had much to do, but he was not about to let
Mohd Marzuki Khairul's extremely late slide on Elijah Gardner - from behind at that - go unpunished.
Marzuki cut a forlorn figure as he trod off, but the Birds fans could afford to be generous with their polite applause. Tian's final sub would bring
Damian Hutter on for
Ha Qicai, who passed the armband to
Lim An Keng. newbies then had one last good attack in injury time, but
Radomil Marcol batted Au Kong Su's rammed shot aside, and Himadas then curled a free-kick slightly too far ahead of
Chad Thach in the final seconds.
