By: GL Oh
KOTA KINABALU: Sabah Tambadau continued their winning form in the Premier League with a comfortable 3-1 win over bottom table team Police at the Likas Stadium, Saturday night. Jelius Ating’s boys had a great start when they took the lead as early as the 4th minute when Brazilian import Luiz Carlos Junior justified his inclusion in the starting line-up with a well taken free kick to beat the opposite keeper.
Despite the early goal, the home team failed to take control of the game and instead had goalkeeper Rozamie Rohim to thank for as Police created many scoring opportunities to try and find the equaliser but found the Sabah’s number one a tough nut to crack. Rozaimie time and again denied the visitors with a series of excellent saves, including a fierce free kick unleashed by Police captain Shahurain Abu Samah before Rodoljub Paunovic extended the lead with a breakaway goal three minutes before half time.
The goal turned the tide and Sabah ended the first half strongly with shots from Maxsius Musa and Paunovic both blocked by the desperate Police players. The restart saw Sabah continued where they left off and within two minutes, Luiz scored his second of the night from a square pass by Paunovic. Sabah players then let their guards down a bit with the three-goal lead, allowing Police to reduce the lead when Argzim Redžović side footed home from a free kick taken by Shahurain in the 52nd minute.
However, both teams were unable to find another goal after that and the score remained 3-1 till the final whistle. The win was Sabah’s third in the competition where they have collected 10 points from five matches with three wins, one draw and one loss. They will next play Negeri Sembilan away on March 9.
