Jelius: We’ll overturn deficit

               Jelius: We’ll overturn deficit   

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Sabah head coach, Jelius Ating remains positive of his team’s chances to overturn their Malaysia Cup quarter-final first leg deficit against Kelantan.

The Rhinos went down 1-2 to their Malaysian Super League opponent during Saturday’s first leg tie at the Sultan Mohammad IV Stadium, Kota Bharu.

Despite that, Jelius and Co are looking forward to the return leg to be played at Likas Stadium, here on September 29 (Saturday) where they hope to capitalise on their away-goal advantage.

“It was unfortunate to end the first leg trailing to a team like Kelantan because it won’t be an easy task to overturn the deficit but I believe the players are capable of surprising them in the second leg.

“We had a shaky first half last night (Saturday) which resulted in us conceding two goals with the penalty a bit harsh, given the officials who had just sent off Randy earlier.

“But we fought back and defended brilliantly in the second half to minimise our damage and at the same time, giving ourselves bigger chances to turn things around next weekend,” he said when contacted on Sunday.

During the first leg, Kelantan took the lead in the 29th minute when Baktyiar Duishobekov headed in Nik Akif Syahiran Nik Mat’s corner kick.

Sabah were then a man down when defender Randy Baruh was sent off in the 39th minute, however, they equalised through Hamran Peter’s header two minutes before the break.

Yet Kelantan regained their lead in the 45th minute after the referee awarded the former champions a penalty kick where Nik Akif Syahiran converted without mistake.

Jelius was left disappointed with the officials’ decision in sending off Randy and hopes that match officials will improve their decision making for the better of Malaysian football in the future.

“The red card did have an impact on our game but as a coach, I don’t have the authority to judge the officials’ decisions because it is their responsibility to control the quality of the match.

“If they see the challenge by Randy was rash, then the decision was correct and we have to accept our fate of playing the entire match with 10 men,” he said.

According to Jelius, Randy is set to miss the second leg due to suspension while at the same time, he has a slight worry on his import striker, Rodoljub Paunovic.

“Paunovic received a slight knock during a challenge with Kelantan player. We will observe him closely when we reach Kota Kinabalu and hopefully it is not a serious case,” he said.



Sabah will be hoping to defeat Kelantan next Saturday as they attempt to go through to the last four where their last semi-final appearance in the Malaysia Cup was in 2007.