Daily Express
Kota Kinabalu: An exhausted Sabah Under-19 squad finished in fourth place at the just concluded National Youth Cup Under-19 football competition which was held in Pahang on Saturday.
In the 3rd/4th place play off, the team who were leading 1-0 with nine-men before being reduced to eight with two more yellow card offences by two other players at the start of the second half resulted them going down 2-3 to Perak at the final whistle.
Team Manager Jumat Jimy blamed the tight schedule for the team failing to win the play-off.
"It was a carnival format and with the long journey from KK and seven days of non stop playing, it finally got the better of the players and with the tired legs, fouls committed are unavoidable," he said.
He said the team could have done better with better preparation.
"We were definitely short of preparation as we only did a week of centralised training before coming over.
Nonetheless I am very proud of the players and credit must give also to the two coaches Awang Sabtu and Roslan Wasli as they have done one better than last where we only made it to the quarterfinal."
He also disclosed that four of the players have been selected to attend a Harimau Muda 'C' selection trial.
Onel Masilinus, Ag Ku Mohd Hamirullizam Mohd Ikhmal, Akid Bahari and Amirjan Yunus will report at the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) building on June 17.
The team had came through in the preliminary round with a 2-2 draw with Terengganu followed by a 1-3 loss to Kelantan, 3-2 win against Penang and drew 1-1 with Sarawak.
In the quarterfinal they beat Kedah 3-1 before losing to Kelantan again in the semi-final 3-1.
