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| DO IT THIS WAY … Justin Ganai (red) having a tactical talk with his chargers. |
Instead the Sabah head coach remains calm as he plots a quick recovery when they take on Sarawak in their first home tie of the season on Saturday.
“I’m still relaxed … that was only our first game. I’m not really disappointed either because at least we now know where we stand as far as our preparations are concerned,” said Justin, when met at the team’s training base at the Institute of Public Administration Sabah Campus (INTAN) field, Jalan Sulaman, Sepanggar yesterday.
Justin went on to say that, in fact, Sabah had better control of the game, but just could not find the much-needed goal.
“In the first half, they had only three chances, scored two from them, while in the second half, they only managed to create two.
“As for us, we were more in control of the game. We created chances too,” he added.
Justin also said that an effort from Brendan Gan in the 60th minute could have put them back into the game, but unfortunately, neither the match official nor the linesman saw the ball cross the line.
“I have watched it on television. The ball seemed to have crossed the line, but unfortunately they didn’t see it,” Justin lamented.
On the offside goals from Brendan and Bobby Gonzales, Justin seemed to agree with the match officials, but then again when one looked at the replay, Brendan’s goal seemed to be on side.
Justin, who refused to make any excuses for the defeat, added that overall, he was satisfied with what he saw, while admitting that the best is yet to come from his side.
“The fluency of our game is still not there yet. Our combination too is not at its best. We still look messy in our game, but given time, I think the players will improve on these aspects,” he said.
Asked to comment on his two foreign players, Michael William Baird and Brendan, Justin reserved his comments on the duo, pointing out that it is still too early to make any judgment.
“Brendan worked hard as usual and we need to give them a little more time to adapt to our system as well as the Super League environment,” Justin said.
On the two goals conceded, Justin does not want to point fingers at his players, but rather wants his chargers to take it as a lesson that they must stay alert at all times.
Sabah went down to goals from Mohd Raimi Mohd Nor and Yong Kuong Yong, who scored in the 27th and 30th minutes respectively.
