Aristos Lighted Up
Nikou Nicks One
The Birds travelled to Greece to play III.9 club Aristos_IRA_10 for their midweek friendly, and the hosts' luck would not change as they sank to a 1-6 defeat. They did emerge from their shell as the match drew on, and secured a consolation from the penalty spot.
Spanish head coach Manuel Echevarriabengoa had overseen the dismantling of their squad after several seasons of no progress in Division Three had drained the patience of the management, with former national youth stars Agisilaos Arvanitopoulos and Yiannis Toufekas both fetching eight figures. This left the club with a young crop headed by 21 year-old Nikos Skarmoutsos, who led their line today. Otherwise, it was mostly a trainee XI that took to the field today, with some exceptions such as loyalist captain Pelagios Mavrostomos, who had been with Aristos for seventeen years and counting.
Petrakis Zacharioudakis would be another exception in attack as he lent experience to a front three that otherwise included only a very raw Prodromos Pispinis, but the midfield headed by Aias Lalas would find themselves unable to hold on against
Chia Kwang Tse and company. The Birds' young frontline posed another kind of problem with their tendency to rush around unchecked, and
Kendell El Khateeb won a free-kick in the 14th minute that
Houssam Belhocine struck home.
Aristos had fire but not quite the coordination to keep Grilled back, and the visitors sprung into action after a brief stoppage for Spiros Zotalidis to get his knee examined, following a fall in the 19th. He remained hobbling a little as Komninos Asvestas played a backpass slightly short five minutes later, which opened the way for
Lim An Keng to nose in and bang a second goal past Dorotheos Perakakis.
It was time for Grilled's own juniors to showcase themselves, and the remainder of the half saw
Kendell El Khateeb assist
Chad Thach, and
Mason Glendinning smash a short corner into the net about the 40th minute. That came from a deflected
Hwang Teck Fu effort that brushed the top of the bar, and
Virgil Huang should really have made his open shot count 43 minutes in - but he put it wide as Aias Lalas approached from the inside.
The restart had
Ananda Hettiarachchi enter for
Lim An Keng, what with the coaching staff hinting at fitness concerns for the duo, which made little enough difference as to Grilled's midfield operation. Indeed, Ananda's first touch of the ball would send
Mason Glendinning nearly clear, and a quick one-two with Kendell rid him of the last man, allowing a straightforward finish for 5-0.
The hosts were not entirely without their own initiative, though they did have to rely heavily on individual brilliance to create openings. Lalas had established himself as their top midfielder for the day, and a swift turn of pace in the 52nd minute had him lose
Ananda Hettiarachchi, no mean feat! Eighteen year-old winger Agamemnonas Zervakos offered himself as the extra man on the right, but he was unable to open up the right angle to trouble
Dahan Bok.
Grilled's reserve goalkeeper restarted with a long throw out to
Chad Thach, and while nothing came of that, the sustained pressure against the relatively inexperienced Stefanos Kalfoglou would soon have its effect. Thach drew Spiros Zotalidis after leaving Kalfoglou behind in the 57th minute with an early run forward, and that in turn left
Hwang Teck Fu free to take over... and chip Perakakis for the sixth.
The Birds took their foot off the pedal a little after that, and Aristos' time came after another nice approach by
Virgil Huang in the 69th minute again failed to live up to its initial promise. His appeal for a penalty after slight contact from Mavrostomos went nowhere, but Nikos Skarmoutsos' rather more convincing case after
Damian Hutter's cynical challenge would be given. Markos Nikou stepped up, and his take was too well-hit despite
Dahan Bok diving to the correct side.
