New Sabah Times
By UMESH RAJAN
KOTA KINABALU: Tambadau juniors finally registered their first victory of the season when they edged Negri Sembilan, 2 – 1 during their Youth Cup Group B tie at Penampang Stadium, near here on Sunday.
The U-19 home team took the lead as early as the 10th minutes courtesy of Mohamad Shahrizan Saidin’s spot kick after Asymawi Sulikin was brought down in the penalty area.
They held the lead into half time, however the visitors equalised brilliantly in the 48th minutes when Muhd Haleif Hazreil Mohd Harif headed home unchallenged from Muhd Huzaimi Mokhtar’s free kick.
Sabah then piled on the pressure for victory and was paid off beautifully as Shahrizan turned provider when Mohd Faqrul Idris headed into the back of the net from his corner kick in the 77th minutes.
Head coach, Billyton Vun Kit Ming said the victory meant a lot for the team after starting their Youth Cup campaign with a heavy loss earlier in the week to Johor Darul Ta’zim IV (JDT IV).
“The players showed strong determination to earn all three points today (Sunday) in front of the home crowd which they managed to do.
“However, we should keep our feet on the ground as it is still long way to go in the season and our team still has plenty of weaknesses in need of rectifying.
“We hope to strengthen the mental toughness of our players to endure tightly contested 90 minutes matches as they showed some of their inexperience during the match,” he said when met after the match.
Billyton insists that the team will be working hard to improve their weaknesses and encourages the players to repeat Sunday’s performance when they face Kedah this Wednesday (Feb 27) at Penampang Stadium.
