Rhinos need to work harder
Published on: Sunday, April 16, 2017
Kota Kinabalu: Head coach Jelius Ating said more works need to be done despite the Rhinos bagging their first 1-0 home victory over Kuantan FA at the Likas Stadium, Friday.The former skipper who took over the hot seat from French coach Steve Vilmiaire last month was relieved after ending the team's six-game winless run in the Premier League, including two losses under his charge, and another in the FA Cup competition."It is a definitely a relief; we are obviously pleased with the result, at this point in time. But we also know we have got a lot of hard work ahead.
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"Our main priority now is to get out of the relegation zone as fast as we can, and the players need to lift their game further to achieve that."He said the victory was an improvement on their previous games."I am very happy with the improvement shown by the players since I took over but I believed the finishing should have been better and the defence needs to be tighter as well. "We were without two imports for the match compared to our opponents, so what the players, especially the locals, achieved on the night was commendable under the circumstances."Youngsters Rahman (Shah Marajeh) and Maxsius (Musa) did very well to take over the role from our foreign imports Jonathan (Behe) and Sofiane (Choubani).
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"I told them to take the opportunity and show us what they can do, and I am glad they played up to expectation and managed to score as well."He also called on the fans to go easy on the players, especially the youngsters.
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"This is a very young team. Most of the players are very inexperienced and they tend to make some mistakes so I hope the fans can understand that."I know some had blame Jenius Karib (left back) for the goal conceded but I thought he did well overall. He just played one too many touches on the ball instead of a more direct and simple defending. I am sure he will learn from the experience and the most important thing for us is help him build his confidence instead of knocking him."With the win, Sabah climbed up one place to 10th on the table standing with seven points from 10 matches. They are now equalled on points with ATM who are a place above and one point more than MISC MIFA in 11th place while Perlis are at the bottom with five points.Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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