Issey Nakajima was the toast of Terengganu last night when his strike eight minutes from time sealed all three points for Terengganu against a physical Royal Malaysian Police (PDRM) side.
Both teams were equal on points before kick-off but the home side started brightly with Nakajima testing PDRM goalkeeper, Badrulzaman Abdul Halim early on.
There were early chances too for defenders Helmi Remeli and Vincent Bikana from deadball situations but both of them failed to find the target.
PDRM players, with former Negeri Sembilan striker turned fullback, Shahurain Abu Samah in particular resorted to physical tactics in order to stop the Terengganu attacks at all cost.
It cost Terengganu their forward, Norshahrul Idlan Talaha who had to be substituted in the 25th minute after a heavy challenge he received from Shahurain early on with Fakhrurazi Musa taking his place.
Terengganu continued to create chances but their players could not hit the target or when they did, found Badrulzaman to be in good form.
After another foul, the referee Wan Mohamad Tarmizi Wan Ibrahim finally flashed the yellow card to Shahurain and his teammate, Mohamad Azrul followed suit a while later together with Bikana for fighting.
Then as the match about to reach the interval another heavy lunge by Shahurain, this time on Ismail Faruqi was deemed legal by Wan Mohamad Tarmizi who waved play on despite the protest by Terengganu players.
The first half theme continued in the second with Terengganu players failing to convert the chances they created.
One player who was really keen to show his stuff was Jaime Braganca who was almost a Terengganu player before The Turtles opted to sign Nakajima instead as the replacement for the injured Hassan Chaito.
Shahurain meanwhile continued to receive 'protection' from Wan Mohamad Tarmizi who should should have flashed a second yellow card to the player on at least two separate occasions.
Instead Wan Tarmizi seemed to be happier in showing the yellow apparatus to Terengganu players with Ismail Faruqi, Fakhrurazi, Helmi Remeli, Gustavo Lopez and Nakajima finding their names in the referee's book for petty fouls.
This did not go down well with the seven thousand plus crowd who started booing the referee and his officials who also seemed to be more lenient towards the visitors who continued to escape with more over the top tackles.
However, justice seemed to be done when Ashari Samsuddin played a one-two with Nakajima and dribbled the ball to the byline before cutting it back into the penalty area finding the Canadian international whose shot gave Badrulzaman no chance at all.
The stadium erupted with joy and relief and Terengganu held on for the rest of the match to win all three points and moved into fourth place.
No comments:
Post a Comment