Bird Bluster
Double Firsts
The mood in the Grilled camp was noticeably up after picking off Chinablack 5-1, and the stands looked slightly fuller than normal for a reserve game with those extra few fans eager to catch the Birds at home after they had toured Austria, Malaysia and Japan the weeks before. The Cannoneers began with a 3-2 advantage the last friendly, and looked more defensive in spite of fielding a 5-4-1 again. Grilled rallied to the fans, who were looking for some magic from the redoubtable Kearney, but ended up with egg on their faces when they were caught short at the back. Nearly the whole team had moved into the Cannoneers' territory, and there was no cover for defender Mario Eder when he burst forward in response to Martin Meyer's astute interception. Eder 's effort was a cross between a clearance and a shot, though. Grilled were tighter in their passing after that, and debutant
Wilson Kearney laid off with a soft stroke for
Au-Yong Siu-Yue to grab his first Grilled goal, which was three games in coming. Hobson, who headed one in the previous match, failed with his feet this time as Cannoneers' goalie Christian Pöschl was alert to the danger. Cannoneers' new signing Alexander Bosnjak was invisible against three men in defence, but the youngster struck home on his single chance, from a long drifting cross by Per Knutsson. Huel-sheng was slow with his legs against that.
A chant went up amongst the Grilled faithful after 29-year old American forward
Wilson Kearney drew upon his wealth of experience to react fastest to a moment of spectacular creativity by midfielder
Asher Stanton. Stanton's no-look lob bypassed the entire packed Cannoneer defence, and Kearney skipped past his markers with a deft turn to cut a daisycutter past Pöschl. Hobson, lifted by that, got the ball in a scoring position with help from the hard-running Blissenbach, only to drop his chip onto the base of the woodwork with Pöschl beaten. The Cannoneers weren't idle either, and the versatile Kamarulzaman bin Ismail started a counter-attack after Hobson over -dribbled. Winger Gerhard Wallmann got a good look at goal, but like Eder in the first half he hit the ball high. Grilled concentrated on keeping possession in the middle of the park, and no chances presented themselves thereafter. Blissenbach received the only yellow card in a restrained match in the ending period, for blatant jersey-tugging.
