Abu Bakar Fadzim - Perak FAGoal / Muhammad Iqbal

'It's not meant to be' - Abu Bakar laments PKNP's wasted chance of reaching semis


BY        ZULHILMI ZAINAL       Follow on Twitter


Speaking to the press following their 4-1 Malaysia Cup second leg quarter-final defeat to Felda United on Sunday, PKNP FC head coach Abu Bakar Fadzim lamented his men's over-confidence in the match.

Despite having come away the first leg victors with a 3-1 win and taken a 1-0 lead in the second leg at the Shah Alam Stadium through Hyeon Woo Kim's 28th minute goal, the dark horse Premier League side would go on to concede four goals in the remainder of the tie, and lose 5-4 on aggregate.

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"After leading, we somehow were surprised by two soft goals in the final 10 minutes (of the first half). We should have pressed more and played with more discipline if we really wanted to qualify for the semis.

"Instead we made another error and lost concentration in the first five minutes of the second half, and an experienced Felda punished us for that.

"For me, the boys have given their best but maybe it just wasn't meant to be our time. We were too comfortable and over-confident, and wasted our chance to be in the semi-finals.

"Our young boys must take this as a lesson, and now move on by redirecting our focus on the remaining two games in the Premier League," he remarked.

Asked by Goal about the effect of the defeat on his side's morale, as they are still in the running for promotion to the 2018 Super League with two matches left to go, the former Perak head coach responded that they have nothing to lose.

"I can't deny it will affect us as we had one foot in the door, but I will monitor them in the coming days.

"We will come back as we have nothing to lose and we've proven that by reaching the quarter-final stage, only that we lost to a complete team. We will focus on the remaining two (league) matches," noted Abu Bakar.

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