New Sabah Times
KOTA KINABALU: The State squad had their journey cut short in the ongoing National Youth Under-19 Football Championship 2012.
They were shown the exit door in the quarter-finals after losing their battle against Kelantan.
They lost 3-1 in a match played at the Universiti Utara Malaysia in Sintok, Kedah yesterday.
Head coach Awang Sabtu Jamil in a telephone interview said that they were trailing 2-1 at half time before conceding the third goal after the break.
Kelantan were leading 2-0 after 34 minutes of play before Sabah reduced the deficit through Awang Shahzree Awang Roslee’s 40th minute effort.
And Awang blamed a lapse of concentration at the backline in the opening half an hour that cost them the game. “We conceded two early goals due to our mistakes, but we managed to fight back.
“However, after they scored the third, it was all over,” he said, referring to Kelantan’s third goal.
Things went from bad to worse for the Awang Sabtu boys as they were forced to play with one man lesser following the sending off of Nazrin Mansor in the 70th minute.
Then they were forced to play with nine men after Hairy Safuan also got the marching orders four minutes from time.
Awang said they managed to create numerous chances to put things on level terms, but unfortunately none found the net.
Despite the defeat, overall, Awang is still happy with the performances put up by his charges considering the fact that they merely had about two weeks or so in preparing the team compared to other teams, such as Kedah, who prepared their side for months.
