Kedah remained third in the Malaysia Super League after they suffered a 2-0 defeat at the hands of Johor Darul Ta'zim at Tan Sri Dato Haji Hassan Yunos Stadium on Sunday. This was their 5th defeat of the campaign, a result that left them tied on points with Melaka and Selangor, in a seeming three-way battle for third.
The visitors went behind in the 33rd minute to Leandro Velazquez goal but might have legitimate claim over Rizal Ghazali being fouled in the process leading up to the goal. The right back's bad night was compounded after he earned his second yellow card and his marching orders in the 67th minute.
Despite being a man less, Kedah held JDT for large periods before a Safawi Rasid strike with three minutes left on the clock ended any hope of salvaging a draw. For Aidil Sharin, the defeat was not unexpected given JDT's strength at home but the Singaporean is adamant that his team will learn from the experience.
"We knew it's not easy to come to JDT. JDT have the best players in the league and they were the better team on the day. There's no excuse for the loss and the most important is that we have to learn from this game. They worked very hard and it's not easy to play with 10 men."
"I don't want to talk about any individual players. This is a team sport, we win as a team and we lose as a team. We need to go back and see where the mistakes are in this game and rectify it before the next game," said Aidil in his post-match press conference.
Kedah were without the influential Baddrol Bakhtiar in Sunday's loss with his place being taken over by new signing David Rowley. Baddrol has been a key figure in Kedah's run to the top half of the league and to be missing him in their toughest away trip of the season was unfortunate.
Things looks likely to continue to be difficult for Kedah as they will face second place Pahang next in the Super League, upon the resumption of the league after the international break. A trip to PKNS FC will follow after that before Kedah turned their attention towards Felda United in the FA Cup semi-final.
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