IT WAS the same old away-day blues for Sabah FC.
After a resounding victory against Sri Pahang FC barely a week ago, Sabah FC registered yet another defeat in their away game against Selangor FC on Sunday night.
We are aware that our away games record is dismal as we seemed to perform below par most of the time since the start of the season.
So far we only managed three wins with five losses and two draws on the road.
It is hard to understand how the same team that beat Sri Pahang FC, a team in form so convincingly was made to struggle in their following match.
No one should doubt our capabilities as the unbeaten home record in the league matches certainly indicated.
Perhaps more work needs to be done to motivate the players before each game so that they come out with a more hungry attitude and be more spirited in their away performance.
The first half display on Sunday was just very mediocre to me and we were lucky to be only one goal down!
The players came out in the second half showing more energy but despite all the efforts, we did not create as many clear chances to really trouble our opponents.
Selangor FC were definitely the more positive side in terms of their attacks and they managed to hit the woodwork several times as well.
Before the start, I had expected the team could rely on the winning momentum from Likas Stadium to get a positive result in this game.
Instead we found ourselves on the back foot most of the time by a team showing more hunger to avenge their first round loss.
There was no doubt that we tried to compete but we lacked the vision and found it hard to create real scoring chances in the game.
Basically Sabah FC were working very hard just to contain Selangor FC’s domination throughout the evening.
We need to go back to the drawing board to ensure there is no more slip up before the home game against the mighty JDT on August 9.
The match will be preceded by another away game on July 30 against lowly Penang FC who are sitting in 10th position.
This is a very good opportunity for us to bounce back from the setback. Hopefully low self-confidence does not creep in and if it does, another loss won’t be a surprise to me.
