Burhan Ajui
KOTA KINABALU: Sabah FC must move on from Sunday’s demoralising defeat and come back even stronger to face the future matches, including in the Malaysia Cup competition.
Assistant head coach Burhan Ajui made the remark as the Rhinos suffered the heaviest defeat in the Super League, going down 6-0 to Selangor FC at the Likas Stadium.
The loss left Sabah FC without a win in their last nine league outings.
“When we return to training, we will review our weaknesses and try to rectify them.
“We have one last league game to play and I hope Sabah FC will bounce back to get the points.
“We will do our best to achieve it and hopefully that will help the players to regain their confidence and eventually boost the team’s preparation for the Malaysia Cup,” he said after Sunday’s game.
Burhan, who has been put in temporary charge of the first team in place of the ‘rested’ Indonesian trainer Kurniawan Dwi Yulianto, added they would call up seven players from the President Cup team to provide competition to the seniors as they look to make improvement in the squad.
Meanwhile, Burhan said the squad were demoralised following Sunday’s heavy defeat.
“We were all very disappointed with the scoreline,” said Burhan who added the absence of creative players Levy Madinda and Saddil Ramdani had been sorely missed.
Madinda missed the game after he was called up to the Liberian national team for the World Cup qualifier while Indonesian import Saddil was sidelined by a groin injury.
“We were missing a couple of key players, including Levy and Saddil before the game while we lost Josip (Ivancic) to injury early in the game.
“Apart from that, miscommunication among our players too had led to Selangor scoring against us.
“The players have tried their best in the game and all these have have affected our game plan,” he said.
FC’s Nigerian-Bahraini professional footballer Ifedayo Omosuyi scored a hattrick in the game while Mukhairi Ajmal, Nor Hakim Hassan and Ahmad Daniel Ahmad Asri were also in the scoresheet for Selangor FC.
With the defeat, Sabah dropped to ninth on 19 points, having registered four wins, seven draws and 10 losses.
However, the Rhinos are already assured of a top-ten finish thus cementing their place in the Super League next season after 11th placed Perak FC lost 2-1 to Melaka United FC last Friday.
Sabah FC have also qualified for the Malaysia Cup as one of the top 11 teams in the Super League.
The Rhinos will complete their league campaign away to Perak FC on September 12.
Super League Standings
P W D L F A Pts
JDT 21 17 3 1 48 8 54
Penang FC 21 12 4 5 35 28 40
Kedah DA FC 20 12 3 5 37 24 39
Terengganu FC 21 11 4 6 31 18 37
Selangor FC 21 10 6 5 44 28 36
KL City FC 21 8 9 4 26 18 33
Melaka Utd FC* 21 5 9 7 24 27 21
PJ City FC 21 5 6 10 14 27 21
Sabah FC 21 4 7 10 20 36 19
Sri Pahang FC 21 4 6 11 23 36 18
Perak FC 21 3 4 14 18 44 13
UiTM FC 20 2 3 15 12 38 9
*Melaka United deducted three points