Sabah FC scrambled to a 3-2 victory over a gusty Penang FC at the Likas Stadium here on Sunday. The win was sweet for many reasons. It was Sabah FC’s first win in the new season after nine games and the other was that the team fought hard and finally edged out Penang FC after gong behind twice.
Kudos to the players for bouncing back and winning the game that should have been much easier if not because of the two soft goals conceded.
Simple defensive lapse was the main cause for letting in the opening goal. It was strange to see defender Dane Ingham back away from the Penang player, who had no pressure at all to chest down the ball from a long pass.
He then failed to react quickly to pounce at the loose ball, which provided the space and time for Dylan Wenzel-Halls to shoot home.
Rawilson Batuil was the other culprit for the second goal when he carelessly passed the ball to a Penang player, who was able to take a shot at goal.
Damien Lim was able to palm away the initial effort, but unfortunately the ball only fell onto Dylan’s path and he had an easier task to poke the ball in the net.
The two mistakes apart, overall, Sabah FC were the dominant side on the night and I thought Farhan Roslan had a good game with his quick runs and brave dribbles.
It was his pass that saw Ajdin slotted in Sabah FC’s first goal. The team’s second goal came from Jafri Chew with his stunning strike from outside the box that gave the Penang FC’s custodian absolutely no chance at all.
It seemed to boost the players’ spirit and the whole team put in extra effort to look for the third goal and Daniel Ting was the toast of the team when he headed home the winner from a corner kick to the delight of the fans and the bench.
It was a long-awaited result and will this first win after nine games be the start of our winning journey in the league?
I guess only time will tell. The season is almost halfway through and right now we are ninth in the table with seven points.
There is still time to climb up the table if we continue to improve, especially on the shaky defense, which we made some glaring errors too often this season.
Let’s hope that when we enter the final stretch, we will be able to rectify all the weaknesses and be able to score more goals.
