Jelius: Good show despite elimination
Published on: Sunday, April 23, 2017
Kota Kinabalu: Jelius Ating said Rhino players can still hold their heads high despite being ousted by Negri Sembilan in the quarterfinal of the FA Cup with a 1-0 aggregate following the 0-0 stalemate in the second leg tie at the Stadium Tuanku Abdul Rahman, Paroi, Friday night.The newly appointed head coach was impressed with the improvement shown by the players in the match as they managed to prevent the current best team in the Premier League from finding the net "We are of course disappointed not to be able to qualify for the semi-finals but at the same time I am very proud of the players' determination to take the game to their opponents despite being underdog.
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"They showed their strong character on the pitch not just against the best team in the league but also the presence of the huge home supporters inside the stadium, and they made life really difficult for Negri Sembilan players despite the immerse pressure. "I hope they will continue to improve as our focus now is on the league where we need to get out of the relegation zone and to remain in the Premier League next season," he said. Meanwhile, team manager Datuk Juil Nuatim was also taken aback by the performance of the team."It has been a long time since we see the players played as well as they did and more over against a team who are still unbeaten this season. They even took control in the opening half and with a performance like this, I think we can still take pride despite failing to enter the semi-finals."
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He however, admitted that there are still room for improvement in the team."Of course there are areas that can be better but I believe we are in the process of getting stronger since Jelius took over the team.
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"As I said earlier, we need to give him time to develop the team and at the moment, he only had four matches under his belt with two in the league and two in the FA Cup."There are still 12 league games to go. Therefore, I hope all parties will continue to give their support to this team," he said. - GL Oh