New Sabah Times
KOTA KINABALU: Sabah Cebagoo FC will have to do without its captain Md Reithuddin Emran when they take on lowly Perak YBU FC in a FAM Cup tie at the Perak Stadium in Ipoh today.
The former State skipper will have to sit a one-match automatic suspension after being given the marching orders in the 2-3 home defeat to ATM Tentera Darat in their last fixture.
Head coach Razali Zinin when contacted said that he is likely to name another former State player Vun Ket Ming @ Billyton to be the stand-in captain, and lead his charges.
“He is one of the most senior and experienced players in the team, and I believe he has got what it takes to skipper the team,” said Razali.
Razali, a former international, also reveals his plan to revert the team’s formation to 4-4-2, in the absence of his lanky defender Reithuddin.
“We have been playing with a 3-5-2 formation in our last few matches, but tomorrow (today) I think, it is back to 4-4-2 because we need a strong defence to play 3-5-2, and we are without Reithuddin,” he said.
Razali also insisted that the mission is to get back to winning ways for his charges.
“They are one of the bottom teams in the League, and we must try to take the points here. As long as we can give it our best, I’m quite confident we can do it even without our skipper,” he added.
On his toothless strikers, Razali said his strikers have been working very hard, not only in training, but also during games, but unfortunately, they have been scoring blanks thus far.
“They have tried very hard, and if they keep on trying and continue with the hard work, I’m pretty sure the goals will come.”
Cebagoo FC is currently fourth in the 11-team standings on six points from two wins and three defeats, while YBU FC in ninth on three points from one win and three defeats.
In fact, YBU have yet to win any match on the battle field.
They were only awarded victory after the FA of Malaysia Local Competition Committee found Kuantan Port FC guilty of fielding a player without a transfer certificate during their tie against YBU.
The match was won by Kuantan Port FC, but during the FA of Malaysia Local Competition Committee recently, they overturned the result and declared YBU as 3-0 victors.
Kuantan Port FC was also docked another three points for the same offence.
They won 1-0 against ATM Tentera Darat, but ended up the losers.
PB Melayu Kedah is the other team, who was docked three points for a similar offence. They defeated Kuantan Port FC 2-1, but the committee declared the match as 0-3 defeats for both sides.
Cebagoo FC also gained from PB Melayu Kedah’s blunder after being given a 3-0 victory in a match they won 1-0 away.
