BY ZULHILMI ZAINAL Follow on Twitter
After seeing his charges wilt in their second leg semi-final Malaysia Cup encounter against JDT, Selangor head coach B. Satiananthan admitted his disappointment at their failure to mount a serious challenge against the favourites.
Despite playing at home on Saturday, the Red Giants struggled to play well and conceded three times; each time to Safawi Rasid from almost similar situations. The match ended in a 3-0 win to the visitors, 5-1 on aggregate.
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Each goal by the Malaysia star came from him beating the offside trap and Selangor left back Prabakaran Kandasamy, before slotting the ball past goalkeeper Khairulazhan Khalid. After the third goal, the defender was substituted off for Fandi Othman, but by then it was too little too late.
Curiously, Prabakaran had been the man who rescued the side in the first leg. Fandi who started the match was a nervous figure, his poor defending leading to JDT's first goal in the first half of the match at Larkin. He was substituted off soon after for Prabakaran, and the change worked in Selangor's favour, and they kept the first leg defeat narrow.
When asked by Goal in the post-match interview, Satiananthan admitted that his two defenders have been massively underwhelming in the tie.
"We're short of left backs other than these two, and they're not consistent. Fandi was the problem the other day, and tonight it's Praba. All three goals came from Safawi who beat him from the inside.
"It's hard to say this, but one (Prabakaran) had been brought on and played well, only to play poorly tonight. It's inconsistent. Sometimes they lose their confidence and this is one of the aspects that we have to improve on," he noted.
But the coach generally thought that his misfiring and unclinical side had generally been outclassed by a much superior side.
"I admit that my players did not play as well they could while JDT showed what they are capable of. It was obvious how much better JDT were and they controlled the game and kept the ball better. We reacted too slowly when JDT players, who are good ball players, can punish us when given space and time to play. They hit us with simple one-twos.
I can't chalk it down to us being unlucky. We had chances in the second half, after going down by two goals, but my players did not put them away. Syahmi [Safari] and [Khyril] Muhymeen had a chance each in the second half, but they did not put them away," explained the experienced trainer.
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