New Sabah Times
By UMESH RAJAN
KOTA KINABALU: Kuala Penyu ended their Safa Cup campaign with a positive atmosphere surrounding the team despite only collecting one point from three matches during the finals.
The district located southwest of Sabah qualified for the finals for the first time after winning their Middle Interior Zone qualifier which featured teams such as Menumbok and Labuan.
Team manager, Fredolin Penggo was proud of the team’s achievement by managing to qualify into the eight-team finals which defined the district’s quality in producing young talented footballers.
“Qualifying as one of the eight top districts in Sabah is a good start for Kuala Penyu and through the experience playing against other experienced districts in the finals, gave us a valuable lesson to develop our football team in the future.
“We are grateful to win our qualifier group but as a less experienced team, there are plenty of aspects we need to improve on as we have many players who lack exposures from big tournaments.
“The district only had two or three players playing in the state’s Reserve League and Youth Cup squads, where their involvement in the Safa Cup helped the younger players a lot,” he said.
Fredolin who is also Kuala Penyu Safa deputy president, believes that the team should be able to form a formidable side in the future courtesy of experience and exposure by playing against top teams.
For the record, Kuala Penyu finished bottom of Group A during the finals with one point after losing to both Kinabatangan and Sipitang while salvaging a draw against Keningau.
