THT selangkah ke final
September 21, 2016
Sapura tekad sekat KLHC
September 22, 2016
KUALA LUMPUR (21st September, 2016): Malaysian Premier Hockey League champions Terengganu Hockey Team (THT) turned in another impressive performance as they beat Maybank 6-1 in the TNB Cup semi-final first leg at the Kuala Lumpur Hockey Stadium in Jalan Pantai on Wednesday.
In the other semi-final match, league runners up Sapura notched a convincing 3-1 win over Kuala Lumpur Hockey Club (KLHC), thanks to goals from Oscar William Wookey (35th), Phillip Ross Burrows (42nd) and Gurbaj Singh (52nd).
KLHC’s only goal of the match came from a penalty corner by South Korean Hyunwoo Nam in the 40th minute.
Sapura coach Yahya Atan was delighted with the result and praised his side’s strong team spirit.
“The boys did very well and I’m particularly happy with how we defended as a team. However, we need to work on moving the ball faster and we will be doing that ahead of the second leg on Friday,” said Atan.
Maybank got off to a good start in their match against THT with a brilliant field goal from Muhammad Firdaus Fauzi in the 7th minute.
But THT were back on level terms in the 16th minute after Ismail Abu converted an excellent pass from the right.
Maybank suffered a setback right before half time as B. Namasivayam was forced to leave the pitch due to an injury.
THT pulled ahead in the 44th minute through Faizal Saari’s close range goal following some fine work from teammate Tengku Ahmad Tajuddin Tengku Abdul Jalil on the right. And five minutes later THT were up 3-1 as Ismail bagged his second goal of the match following a swift move.
South Korean Jang Jonghyun further extended THT’s lead to 4-1 in the 50th minute through a well taken penalty corner and Faizal got his second through a field goal in the 53rd minute.
There was more misery late on for Maybank as THT got their sixth of the match through a field goal by Muhamad Amirul Mirza Rozi in the 57th minute.
THT coach Sarjit Singh was happy with his team’s performance in the first leg but refused to get carried away.
“We did well today but it is only the first half. We must maintain our focus and we will do our best to win the TNB Cup,” said Sarjit.
Results – TNB Cup: THT 6 Maybank 1; Sapura 3 KLHC 1.
