BY ZULHILMI ZAINAL Follow on Twitter
It seems that the worst is over for the Red Giants, following their 3-0 win over Kelantan in their second round FA Cup win on Tuesday.
Although the hosts defence proved to be stubborn, Syazwan Zainon's 61st minute goal opened the floodgates for the man in form Faiz Nasir to score a brace (65', 86').
The Red Giants' resurgence is a much-needed bost to their season, having started it with five matches without a win under head coach B. Satiananthan.
But after the match, Satiananthan downplayed his charges' recent wins, preferring to highlight the players who have been performing well instead.
"The most important thing is we won the match to reach the next round. It's never easy to play away to Kelantan, and I think tonight what separated the two sides was the fact that the home team players were nervous.
"If they had a good foreign forward, they'd be good enough for the Super League. Their younger players are good, but there was no one to calm them down.
"Whereas for us, we missed Rufino (injured striker Rufino Segovia), but thankfully our other players were up to the task of scoring such as Syazwan Zainon and Faiz Nasir. My team needs to work on our finishing in training. However, the defence played well today and I'm pleased with the way the team performed, regardless of the goal count. This weekend we'll be playing in a league match, so we didn't come here to collect goals; but simply to win," explained the former Malaysia boss.
He was also reluctant to shower praises on Faiz, despite the star player's recent burst of form. Last month he scored a stunner in his Malaysia debut to help them defeat Afghanistan 2-1, before scoring the only goal in their 1-0 league win over his former club Terengganu FC last week.
"Faiz will be Faiz. Fans call him 'Messi' and he is our Messi. But he can improve further in his decision-making; for example when to keep the ball in order to avoid getting injured.
"But this will all come with experience. And he comes from Kelantan, and I hope Kelantan continue to develop youth footballers," said Satiananthan.
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