BY ZULHILMI ZAINAL Follow on Twitter
Although his charges managed a 2-1 win over Klang Valley rivals Kuala Lumpur (KL) in their week 16 Super League match on Saturday, Selangor boss B. Satiananthan was unimpressed with the way they made things harder for themselves.
Ifedayo Olesegun gave the hosts the lead with his 36th minute goal at the Shah Alam Stadium, but a bizarre penalty call that was converted by Guilherme de Paula in the 58th minute made things tougher for the Red Giants. Only in the final moments of the match did they find the winner, when the referee pointed to the spot after Sean Selvaraj went down in the box under Luke Woodward's challenge, another contentious penalty decision that was then put away by Sandro da Silva.
The win allowed them to pip Kedah to third place in the standings.
Speaking in the post-match press conference, Satiananthan criticised his men for not finishing off their opponents early.
"It should've been an easy game for us, but we made it harder. We had most of the possession and the chances, but failed to put them away. We kept losing the ball to the opponents too.
"We then started slowly in the second half and lost concentration, leading to the equalising penalty. I don't know why the penalty call was made... but it came from a situation that we allowed to happen ourselves; from a corner kick that we did not defend properly. It should have been easy, but we made it hard for ourselves instead," he remarked.
The former Malaysia head coach however was pleased with the second-string players who were given the chance to start the match. Michal Nguyen's suspension and the injuries picked up by several players saw the likes of centre back Ashmawi Yakin, defender Fandi Othman and winger Khyril Muhymeen receiving a rare start.
"We can't depend on the regular starters only. If the team wants to be a good team, we need strength in the reserves as well.
"Take Fandi for example; he's never played as a right back as he's left-footed, but tonight he played well today [as a right back]. He did as instructed. It's also Endrick's (midfielder Endrick dos Santos) first game after some time, and I'm impressed that he was able to play the full 90 minutes and that he played well," said Satiananthan.
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