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We’ve already lost three times against Terengganu this season, but we must win today to put our title challenge back on track. Otherwise we risk allowing Selangor MPPJ to run away with the top spot. We will though have to do without no fewer than five players through suspension, and I’ve had to call up some of the reserves to fill in the numbers.

We made a good start, but only really looked dangerous from set pieces. Indeed, that was how we took the lead after quarter of an hour with reserve centre back Mohd Fahmi Mohd Hatta heading home from a corner kick. It was a tight game, and both sides struggled to create anything on target.

Terengganu hit the crossbar in the second half as we held on to keep our lead, and despite having to defend against their sporadic, but decent, attacking force, we were still ahead going into the final few minutes. At that stage R. Sunder Selver was bundled over in the box, and he got up to take, and score, the penalty himself and give us a very important win.

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A trip to Selangor MK Land is what awaits us as we begin the second half of the league campaign still three points behind the league leaders. We do though have a number of players back from suspension, and the side looks a lot stronger from that which won last weekend.

Indeed, we got off to the best start possible as Abdul Manan netted inside 16 seconds. We weren’t going to settle for that, and kept pushing forward. And with twenty minutes gone we had a penalty. With R. Sunder Selver on the bench, Rufin Oba stepped up to take it. He sent the kick straight at the goalkeeper, but thankfully Padilha da Rocha was on hand to fire home the rebound.

We continued to dominate the proceedings for the rest of the first half, but we couldn’t add to score. That didn’t seem to matter though as the home side weren’t doing very much either. That changed in the second half, and we had to defend deeply to keep them out.

Midway through the second period the home side pushed relentlessly, and they pulled a goal back with a 25-yard screamer through a crowded penalty box. It set up a somewhat nervous finale, but we held on to claim victory, and with Selangor MPPJ only managing a draw, we’re back to within a point of the top of the league.

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A home tie against Melaka was one that I was banking on us to get a victory, but we were put under pressure right from the start by our visitors. It wasn’t pretty stuff, but we somehow kept our composure and started to get forward ourselves.

We still didn’t look all that good, but were pushing Melaka back. But then we were caught out when a free kick was deflected in, and we found ourselves behind at the break.

We laboured our way to creating a few chances in the second half to equalise, but nothing was forthcoming, and we were getting increasingly frustrated. Five minutes from time we failed to deal with a simple cross, and their substitute striker got enough of a flick to head in a second and condemn us to defeat.

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We ended the month with an away trip to N. Sembilan, and due to a combination of suspensions and injuries, I was forced to play Nordin Kamis at centre-back. He looked good in that position all afternoon, and it’s good to know that I can rely on him in an emergency.

Further up the field we again disappointed. We struggled to create chances, and although we hit the target when we did get a chance, their goalkeeper was in fine form to keep us out.

We also had our goalkeeper to thank for denying the home side, and the game fizzled out into a 0-0 draw.

We’ve now got two weeks off before our next match, and that should be enough time for just about everyone in the squad to recover from injury. The poor results of late have allowed Kelantan to close to within a point of us, and it’s now starting to look like a three-horse race to claim the “B” division.

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SUMMARY – May 2005

Kuala Lumpur 2 (Mohd Fahmi Mohd Hatta 15, R. Sunder Selver pen 82)
Terengganu 0
Attendance: 2979

Selangor MK Land 1 (Ndubuisi Agu 66)
Kuala Lumpur 2 (Eddy Helmi Abdul Manan 1, Marcelo Padilha da Rocha 19, Rufin Oba s/o 19)
Attendance: 911

Kuala Lumpur 0
Melaka 2 (Norizam Ali Hassan 27, Halim Jontan 85)
Attendance: 3093

N. Sembilan 0
Kuala Lumpur 0
Attendance: 4355

<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre">Pos Team Pld Won Drn Lst For Ag G.D. Pts1st Selangor MPPJ 15 8 4 3 30 18 +12 282nd Kuala Lumpur 15 7 4 4 24 15 +9 253rd Kelantan 15 6 6 3 22 19 +3 244th Terengganu 16 4 8 4 11 13 -2 205th N. Sembilan 15 3 9 3 10 9 +1 186th Melaka 15 3 9 3 16 17 -1 187th Kelantan SKMK 15 3 9 3 10 14 -4 188th Selangor MK Land 15 4 3 8 18 21 -3 159th Johor 15 2 4 9 9 24 -15 10 </pre>

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We had a full and fit squad to choose from as Kelantan SKMK came to visit, and that meant that influential defender Abdul Ghani Malik was back and starting for us.

Given our form in the last two games, it was no surprise that the play was a little scrappy, but we did control much of the proceedings. Creating and taking chances was proving more difficult that I’d have liked though, and we were a little frustrated to be at 0-0 come half time.

It was never going to be pretty, and the only goal of the game was far from that as Rufin Oba saw a shot deflected in to give us the lead. The visitors look a little dangerous after that, but they were hampered late on when they had a player sent off for a second bookable offence.

Results elsewhere also went our way, and the victory took us to the top of the table, albeit only on goal difference.

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We began the last third of the league campaign with a home match against Kelantan who had lost their decent unbeaten run the previous weekend. It was to be a critical game now that Kelantan had got into the promotion race, and we suffered a blow in training in the week when Eddy Helmi Abdul Manan was ruled out for the game with an injury, meaning a start for the just-recovered Zaykiel Leong.

We didn’t start particularly well as we backed off their striker, and he cracked home an effort from 25 yards out to leave us reeling. Thankfully, we had plenty of time to get back into the game, and after a few prodding moments, Padilha da Rocha saw an effort turned in by a defender. The Malaysian FA decided that it was an own goal, but I feel that it was a little harsh on our Brazilian.

We failed to build on that equaliser though, and by half time we were behind again to another strike as we failed to defend properly.

We were much better in the second half, and after a minute or so of incessant pressure, Zaykiel Leong finally broke his duck for the club as he turned in a loose ball at the far post to equalise again. We had our chances to win the game in the final minutes, but we had to settle for a draw, and I was quite happy with that.

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A trip to bottom-of-the-table Johor beckoned for us, and the only change in the team was on the left wing where Sukiman was in for the suspended Ng Kok Heng.

It should have been a match that we dominated, but such was the play that you would have thought the home side were challenging for the title and us, the visitors, were fighting for relegation. We were under pressure right from the start, and it was inevitable that we would be behind soon enough. The goal came before the half hour mark through Daniel Watkins, and before half time we had conceded another as poor defending let us down.

We were much improved in the second half, but to be honest, that wasn’t hard. We did create a few chances to score, but we never looked likely, and this form, or lack of it, could end up costing us a promotion playoff at the end of the season.

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The visit of Selangor MPPJ was going to be crucial to deciding who would be contesting a promotion playoff. It seemed though that the fans weren’t too keen on seeing two out-of-form sides tackle each other as only 613 bothered to turn up. That despite the tie being played on a Sunday evening!

If the fans weren’t up for it, the players most certainly were, as we won all the tackles early on and got to the ball first. We could then start to create chances, and we did so a number of times during the game, only to be denied by some good defending and some excellent goalkeeping. Padilha da Rocha was also denied by the woodwork.

The visitors tried to use their pace to hit us on the break, but on the whole we dealt with them quite well, and they only ended up with one shot on-target throughout the entire game.

Our failure to score was starting to get to us, and with only a few minutes to go we were down to ten men when Makmor was given his marching orders. I would have settled for a draw there and then, but Zaykiel Leong had other ideas, and in injury time he powered his way through the Selangor midfield and defence and put the ball away to earn us a deserved, but also lucky, victory.

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SUMMARY – June 2005

Kuala Lumpur 1 (Rufin Oba 63)
Kelantan SKMK 0 (Mohd Amri Mohd Ramli s/o 87)
Attendance: 1407

Kuala Lumpur 2 (Mohd Halian Napi (og) 17, Zaykiel Leong 64)
Kelantan 2 (Mohd Zaidi Zaing 4, 33)
Attendance: 2972

Johor 2 (Daniel Watkins 27, Mustaza Maah Mustafa 38)
Kuala Lumpur 0
Attendance: 3230

Kuala Lumpur 1 (Zaykiel Leong 90, Nazrulerwan Makmor s/o 87)
Selangor MPPJ 0
Attendance: 613

<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre">Pos Team Pld Won Drn Lst For Ag G.D. Pts1st Kuala Lumpur 19 9 5 5 28 19 +9 322nd Selangor MPPJ 19 8 5 6 32 27 +5 293rd Kelantan 18 7 7 4 26 25 +1 284th N. Sembilan 19 5 11 3 16 11 +5 265th Terengganu 19 5 9 5 13 15 -2 246th Melaka 19 4 11 4 21 21 0 237th Selangor MK Land 18 6 3 9 25 24 +1 218th Kelantan SKMK 18 3 10 5 12 18 -6 199th Johor 19 3 7 9 13 26 -13 16 </pre>