Aidil Sharin Relieved Kuching City FC Collect Full Points

GEORGE TOWN, March 15 (Bernama) — The success of collecting three full points and jumping to the second place in the Malaysia Super League has been a boost for Kuching City FC to continue maintaining their winning momentum, especially ahead of the Malaysia Cup semi-final against Selangor FC on April 5.

Head coach Aidil Sharin Ishak, who was relieved by the result, described the victory as very meaningful, especially when his team had to face stiff opposition from Penang FC throughout the match.

“I credit the players for the three points tonight. We know it’s not going to be easy because we know what Penang are capable of. They kept playing high balls but we executed our plan very well,” he said after the match at Bandaraya Stadium here, last night.

The 49-year-old manager also singled out several players including Wanja Ronald Ngah who worked hard throughout the match despite not scoring a goal, as well as striker Gabriel Nistelrooy Tamin who took advantage of the opportunity to give The Cats the victory.

However, he reminded his men not to be complacent with the victory, but to continue working hard because bigger challenges await after the long Aidilfitri holiday.

“Definitely we will try to improve ourselves. That’s football — when you play away it’s not easy, but we will go back to training and do our best to improve,” he said.

Meanwhile, Penang FC head coach Wan Rohaimi Wan Ismail was disappointed with his team’s defeat despite successfully creating several chances throughout the match.

He said the players’ failure to finish off opportunities apart from simple mistakes that led to the opponent’s goals were the main cause of the defeat.

“The goal we gave was a schoolboy mistake. But this is a high-level football, the players need to be sharper in front of goal and calmer in front of our goal. These mistakes caused us to lose today,” he said.

However, Wan Rohaimi remained satisfied with the determination shown by his players, especially in the first half, while stressing that several aspects of the game need to be improved in preparation for the Malaysia Challenge Cup final which will be held next month.

Last night's match saw Kuching City FC narrowly win 1-0 through Gabriel Nistelrooy's goal in the 40th minute, thus moving up to second place with 40 points, ahead of Selangor FC and Kuala Lumpur City FC who shared 38 points, after occupying third and fourth place respectively, while Penang FC remained in ninth position with 19 points.

—BERNAMA