No flight, no play!

KOTA KINABALU: Sabah’s plan to go for a friendly tour to Peninsular Malaysia could be ruined by the unavailability of seats.

Team manager AR Haji Shahriman Abdullah said they have already made the necessary arrangements for the team to go to the national capital for a series of friendly games.

However, he added they are now facing difficulties in getting the seats.

“Most of the flights are full, and if there are any, there are only three or four seats available (each flight).


Anyway, we will try our best to get the team to travel,” Shahriman said when met at the team’s friendly against a local side at the Penampang Stadium yesterday.

Shahriman said they are scheduled to take on Kuala Lumpur, Selangor and Johor FC before returning home.

“The friendly matches have been set, but now it will all depend on whether we can get a flight to Kuala Lumpur,” the Sabah FA Treasurer added.

He also said if it materialises, upon returning from the national capital, they plan to play another two matches against Sarawak, to be played home and away.

The team is scheduled to travel on December 15 and would take on Kuala Lumpur the next day before playing Selangor on December 17.

Then they head to the Southern State of Johor to play Johor FC before returning home.

Failing to play some ‘hard games’ before the Malaysian Super League 2012 kicks off, which is expected to be the second week of January 2012, could back fire on the team.

They certainly need tough games to really put them to the test as playing local clubs will not give them the much needed match temperament.

Thus far, they have played at least three friendly matches against local clubs, and without disrespect to any of these teams, who have sportingly agreed to take on the pros, they were a little short in many ways, in terms of experience and strength to take on the pros.

In these three matches, including yesterday’s tie, the Justin Ganai boys scored more than 30 goals.

Unlike in previous years where the State squad seemed to struggle to beat local clubs, this time around, it is a different scenario.

They registered victories rather easily and they seem to be in a class of their own, at least if we are to compare them to the local clubs.