dollarDex CEO CF tells the Straits Times that investors should keep faith in China funds and reckons several Asian and emerging markets, including Thailand, “still look good”. He tells the paper investors should “enter China after a pullback”. Dirty talk. Sadly, his mercurial wing play and wealth management acumen were missing from this game. The BC dominated the first 15 minutes but then struggled on a suet pudding of a pitch against a muscular, well organized Hibernian first team.
Hibs opened the scoring after around 20 minutes, benefiting from a rebound after a good diving save from stand-in keeper JL. A second followed midway through the second half – a clever volley from a lobbed ball that just evaded a statuesque BC defence – and a soft third, a tap-in from a corner, left the BC with a proverbial mountain to climb. MJ reduced the arrears, volleying in from a corner with 10 minutes to go, but it proved too little, too late.
And it had all begun so brightly. The Singapore Polytechnic pitch, the BC’s new home – for three weeks, at least – was wide and flat, though cut up quickly after a fortnight of heavy rain. Rarely troubled at the back, the BC prodded and probed, with UN prominent on the right and JR and MC through the middle. CA and NG offered options in attack.
NG and MC both had decent shots palmed away by a Hibs keeper who looked less than assured – and who, in a quaint throwback to the muddy 1960s, toe-punted every goal kick.
Hibs then began to assert themselves and, crucially, played the ball short to feet. The BC began to lose ground and resorted to trying to play in the strikeforce with the perfect defence splitting pass rather than knocking it to feet. Ball retention was at times woeful. Possession ceded far too cheaply. We had the shape, but the Hibs had the hearts.
In defence, AM looked strangely assured at times and Budgie, on the left, was all mouth and bristling ferocity, haranguing the referee and opposition in equal measure but winning crucial tackles. AP and BW were coming under increased pressure, and the former was fortunate to escape a caution for a couple of trademark crunching late tackles. MJ was under-utilised wide left.
At the first rotational change, CP entered at centre back, IG for AM, TC and BM in midfield and SM up front. UN continued to prowl with menace on the right, but real chances were few, and the game was slugged out in the cloying mud across the middle.
Hibs, a decent side, had few weak links and played to their strengths, led by a couple of strong forwards, who showed no hesitation in going muscle-to-muscle with BC opponents. The portly central midfield playmaker enjoyed more time and space than he should have been allowed. At the back, they mopped up the few loose balls that could have been turned into half chances.
At 0-2, AL entered the fray and almost instantly was put through by MJ. Ant charged in on goal but blasted his shot just over the bar. Bogged down in midfield, the BC began to use more of the park’s width, and TC and IG on the right had time to stroke across some crosses that brought little reward.
The Hibs’ third goal effectively killed off the game as a contest. A corner from the right was not claimed and bounced in off a striker’s shins. AP finally won his coveted yellow card after a bruising duel with the Hibs main striker. Cruelly, AP was cautioned for the one tackle where he actually won the ball. MC added steel as a defending midfielder, but JR and BM were finding it heavy going in the sticky middle.
MJ’s late goal was some consolation, but with cup and EFL games coming up against the same opposition in the next two weeks, things must change. As the gaffer BT succinctly put it: “Next week; same time, same place, same opposition, different attitude.”
Omitted from last week’s report; BM’s MoM performance against the Northlanders. This week, a hungover right-back Scooped the prestigious award, just ahead of a strong claim by JL in goal.
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