LIONSXII edged out by a late Terengganu goal in a 2012 Malaysian Super League match

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Date: 

Sat, 28 Jan 2012

SINGAPORE, 28 January 2012: LIONSXII were edged out by a late Terengganu goal when the two teams went head to head at a fully packed Jalan Besar Stadium in a 2012 Malaysian Super League match on 28 January 2012.
There were two pre-match events that took place before the match kicked off, a lion dance act to commemorate the Chinese Lunar New Year and the other, a minute of silence was observed to pay tribute to the passing of former international, Razali Alias.
The first-half got off to a good start for the LIONSXII as they piled pressure on the Terengganu defence in an attempt to gain the lead. But all their efforts were not converted successfully as LIONSXII found it hard to find their scoring touch.
Terengganu’s forwards were kept quiet in the first-half by a strong willed LIONSXII defensive wall.
The best moment of the match came when LIONSXII played a series of brilliant passes from their own half and into the Terengganu penalty box. The resultant shot by Firdaus Kasman however flew past the crossbar.
The teams then went into the break with the scoreline unchanged.
Coming into the second half, both teams surged forward in search of the goal that would turn the game around.
And Terengganu were effective in doing so when forward Francis Forkey Doe capitalised on a LIONSXII defensive error in the 79^th minute to score the only goal of the highly charged match.
The LIONSXII were left to rue their missed opportunities up front of goal when the referee blew the final whistle to end the match, with the scoreboard reading, LIONSXII 0-1 Terengganu.
Speaking at the post-match press conference, Terengganu coach Mat Zan Mat Aris said “We created a few chances in the first half and second half. And when Francis got his first chance, he got a goal and that was good for us. I think the one thing that the LIONSXII team is missing, is experience. And we knew their style of play which is to play long ball.”
LIONSXII coach V.Sundramoorthy touched on his team’s performance when he said “We played below expectations and I believe we have many young players who are tasting raw football at this level for the first and second time, and the injuries to key players did not help us. Terengganu on the other hand, had experienced players and good foreigners and they played well today. We will now have to see how we can reshuffle the team after reviewing the injuries that were picked by the players tonight.”
Final Score: LIONSXII 0-1 Terengganu
Starting Line-up for LIONSXII: Izwan Mahbud, Shaiful Esah (Taufiq Rahmat 54’), Isa Halim, Shahdan Sulaiman, Hariss Harun, Shahril Ishak (C), Safuwan Baharudin, Juma'at Jantan, Firdaus Kasman (Raihan Rahman 74’), Shakir Hamzah, Yasir Hanapi (Agu Casmir 59’)
Starting Line-up for Terengganu: Muslim Ahmad, Shamsul Kamal (Abdul Hadi Yahya 89’), Erison Da Silva, Francis Forkey Doe, Abdul Manaf Mamat, Mazlizam Mohamad (Ahmad Nordin Alias 90’), Zubir Azmi, Abdul Shukur Jusoh, Ashari Samsudin, Faizal Muhammad, Sharbinee Allawee (C)