Kota Kinabalu: Datuk Ong Kim Swee called on his players to bounce back from their 0-4 thrashing by Johor Darul Ta’zim (JDT) FC at Sultan Ibrahim Stadium on Friday night.
The top of table clash between the two teams saw the home side take the lead in the 20th minute through Arif Aiman before Juan Muniz extended their lead in the 38th minute.
Sabah FC raised their game in the second half as they tried to find the breakthrough, but were caught twice in the run of play towards the end of the game with goals from Syahmi Safari in the 81st minute and Fernando Forestieri in the 89th minute.
The scoreline could have been different as Arif had clearly made contact with Sabah’s Irfan Zakaria resulting in the latter falling onto the ground before he received the ball and scored.
The two second half goals also looked like Arif and Corbin Ong may have been in an offside position before they received and passed the final ball to Syahmi and Ferdando.
Ong admitted after the game that JDT were a better side and his players had a poor start.
“We couldn’t get into our rhythm early to control the game as we would have liked.
“We knew they had the quality to score with the chances gifted and after conceding the first two goals, it made life very difficult for us.
“We tried to attack more in the second half and we played well for about 20 minutes, but unfortunately we were caught out resulting in two more goals conceded late in the game,” he said.
He also said the involvement of several key players in the international friendlies few days earlier was one of the factors for the loss.
“They only have a few days to rest and play against a team like JDT where you need to be very disciplined and that makes you even more tired.
“JDT are of a different level. We need to learn from the loss and try to improve and raise our level further and not to give up.
“It is not easy to bounce back from a defeat to win the next game. The players will need a very positive attitude and I am confident our players possessed that,” he said.
