19/08/1997
THE Malaysia Hockey League quarterfinals draw at the Bukit Jalil Hockey
Stadium yesterday presented an easy passage into the last four for
favourites Petaling Jaya Municipal Council (PJMC).
Not that they needed the luck of the draw.
PJMC will meet DeTas of Pahang in the first leg on Thursday at the
Petaling Jaya Municipal Council Stadium, in what is expected to be a one-
sided affair.
Nevertheless, PJMC coach Yahya Atan was modest about their chances.
"The quarterfinals are a different ball game. All the teams will surely
play their hearts out to make the semifinals. We will have to be on the
guard as eTas are a good side.
"Also Mirnawan Nawawi is down with a knee injury and will probably be
out for weeks. As for R. Shankar, we will have to forget about him for the
season. I am still testing Nor Azlan Bakar and Maninderjit Singh to take
over Shankar's place."
League runners-up Bank Simpanan Nasional (BSN) will meet Kuala Langat in
the first leg at the Bukit Jalil Stadium and it is expected to be an
explosive affair although BSN hammered Kuala Langat 8-0 in the
preliminaries.
Kuala Langat have been improving game-by-game and if their comeback from
three-goals down against DeTas on Sunday is anything to go by, BSN will
have to be on their toes for 70 minutes.
"Although we beat them by a huge margin in the preliminaries, I don't
think Kuala Langat, after coming thus far, will sit back and allow us room
to move.
"But if the players keep their head, like they have been doing all this
while, the semis are just two steps away," said BSN coach C. Paramalingam.
And BSN's Sarjit Singh, who scored a hat-trick against Kuala Langat,
will have to be shut out of the game together with Brian Jayhan Siva if
Kuala Langat want to make an impact.
Sarjit has been using the no-offside rule to the maximum and his through
balls to unmarked players has resulted in numerous goals.
"Sarjit has been a thinking player from day one, and now with the no-
offside rule on his side, he has been opening up the matches for BSN,"
said Paramalingam.
At the meeting, it was also decided that time wasting before penalty
corners will not be tolerated.
"In the preliminaries, many teams took more than two minutes to discuss
their strategies and make running substitutions, this must not happen in
the quarterfinals.
"Teams must decide and make substitutions on the run and there should be
no delay," said chairman of MHF umpires board M. Sridharan.
(END)
