KOTA KINABALU: Sabah FC were left to wait for a first win in the Super League after going down 0-1 to PJ City FC at the Likas Stadium Saturday night.
The defeat left Sabah with only a single point from their opening three games, having drawn 1-1 with Malacca United FC and losing 0-2 to Kedah Darul Aman FC previously.
Hopes were high that the Rhinos would finally collect the maximum points, especially with a full squad available in their first home fixture of the season.
However, it was not to be.
Head coach Kurniawan Dwi Yulianto gave Levy Clement Madinda, Risto Mitrevski, Sam Johnston and Saddil Ramdani their full debut along with the retained Park Tae Su on the pitch.
And the new foreign recruits were able to gel with the rest of the squad although without much success.
Despite that, Sabah did create the first real chance of the match after 12 minutes of play.
Saddil’s ambitious effort from a 35m free kick evaded everyone inside the box but to his dismay, the ball bounced off the right goalpost with Kalamullah Al-Hafiz Mat Rowi well beaten.
The Rhinos continued to dominate the game and the fact that PJ City FC did not have a single try on goal in the opening half said much about Sabah’s effective game plan, although lacking was the scoring opportunity.
Sabah had only one more good scoring chances in the first half and it came from another deadball situation.
Madinda stepped up to take the free kick from the right but his goal-bound shot was pushed over the bar by Kalamullah for a fruitless corner in the 26th Minute.
The missed chances proved costly as PJ City, after having an effort rattled the crossbar just after the second half restart, scored in what was their first shot on goal on the night in the 52nd minute.
Mitrevski, who has been solid previously, was unfortunate as he slipped and fell as he tried to clear the ball and worse, the ball bounched off him and rolled past goalkeeper Robson Rendy and onto the post.
Striker Darren Lok was the luckiest man on the pitch as he has the simplest of task to slot the ball home into the net for his third goal in the last two matches.
It proved to be the crucial winner as despite sending on Bobby Gonzales, Hamran Peter and Sabri Sahar, the Rhinos could not find the equaliser.
“It’s hard to collect three points in Sabah…it (the victory) is unbelievable. They worked very hard and while Darren scored the winning goal, it was a good team effort.
“We will now focus on the next game against Kedah,” said the unbeaten Pj City head coach P. Maniam after the game.
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