Acme Act Out
Torrens Naughty
Grilled Birds' finale friendly for the season had Scottish III.6 visitors ACME ROAD RUNNERS draw over four thousand to The Cooking Pot, and they would prove a fine unofficial welcome for incoming head coach
Dan Alstani, who took charge with
Tian Yonghang sat behind the dugout. The stakes were not very high, but it was evident that Alstani was digging for good omens with a strong midfield - one that was on paper actually mostly matched by the ROAD RUNNERS, whose 32 year-old Belgian playmaker Rob Moyaert had hung with the best over a long and productive career.
Moyaert was ably supported by German destroyer Gernot Rossa as well as another Belgian journeyman in Gaëtano Van Moerkercke, with Swedish centreback Roger Anderquist anchoring the defence ahead of veteran Romanian goalkeeper Theodor Durdun. 25 year-old former Tuskens striker Ethan McGovern captained the side, with Jimmy Earnshaw next to him in a youthful and unpredictable attack.
Earnshaw was the first to get off the mark as the Birds again struggled to make sense of their somewhat cobbled-together front three, with
Mohsen El Khateeb not quite up to the task of containing his frequent short and seemingly random dashes across the box. Moyaert was watching, and a clever jiggle and sudden pass from the left wing six minutes in, freed Earnshaw to clip it past
Dahan Bok.
That was as good as ROAD RUNNERS had it for the half, though, as Grilled began to push them back in earnest. They soon had the visitors mostly confined to their own half, but an equalizer was long in coming with
Mohsen El Khateeb whiffing on
Aw Keng Chuan's low corner in the 28th minute. Four minutes later, there would be more competent shooting by
Hwang Teck Fu, but even he could not find a way past Roger Anderquist's long leg.
Grilled got the jolt they needed in the 36th minute as Czech winger Jindřich Schiller got booked for a late rake on
Kendell El Khateeb's right calf as he danced across, and the free-kick that ensued was carried down the left by Hwang. Walter Saurabh came across to block, but only succeeded in whacking it into his own net - though the goal got credited to the Birds forward, to no dissent from the embarassed ROAD RUNNERS winger.
It was then 2-1 for the home side, as American referee Juan de Dios Sierra espied altogether too much shirt-tugging from Renato Torrens;
Aw Keng Chuan played the free-kick as soon as possible, and
Mohd Marzuki Khairul got through. The referee's patience would then be sorely tested as Torrens continued his antics with a clearly contrived dive right inside the Birds penalty area, which brought another yellow card.
The second half had Radovan Jaška on for the largely ineffective Mohsen, with it being the farewell appearance of the Czech veteran. Goalkeeper
Dahan Bok was off too, as
Dan Alstani decided to give Greek backup
Dimitris Germanakos forty-five minutes to retune himself. All the action was at the other end, however, and
Chia Kwang Tse broke the ROAD RUNNERS' lines with a direct rush in the 49th minute, for Grilled's third goal.
A fourth was forthcoming too as
Aw Keng Chuan slid it between Theodor Durdun's feet perhaps partly by chance on his snap-shot two minutes later, and from then it was just how many the Birds could put in - which turned out to be zero. Durdun chose the 54th minute to reprise his former heights with a splendid one-handed stop off
Lim An Keng's flier, not long before leaving for Polish goalkeeper Jerzy Niewiatowski to enter.
It should really have been more as Renato Torrens finally got himself sent off after arguing with the referee 63 minutes in, and the Italian wingback would cap it off by tossing his jersey into the crowd as he departed - not that there was more that Juan de Dios Sierra could get him on, within the venue at least. Against a ten-man ROAD RUNNERS,
Kendell El Khateeb tried his best with a competent curler as Grilled worked the new gap in the opposition defence, but Niewiatowski was there to push it over.
Walter Saurabh would instead find the last goal of the friendly, as he charged past
Damian Hutter on the left side two minutes later, well against the general run of the play.
Ananda Hettiarachchi came on for a drained-looking
Paulino Trindade with a minute to go, which was long enough for him to set
Hwang Teck Fu up for a shot - which went inches over.
