`Bad decisions' help Andersen against Maybank

06/04/2002

ANDERSEN Sports Club struggled for 50 minutes against Maybank in the
Malaysia Hockey League before they received great help from their 12th
player at the Kuala Lumpur Hockey Stadium in Jalan Pantai yestarday.
Maybank put up a great show and held the star-studded Andersen side
before three bad decisions by umpire S. Kuganeswaran turned the tide in
favour of Andersen.
The crowd jeered the umpire, but in the end, Andersen walked away with
three points that are going to go a long way towards their quest to win
the League title.
The first bad call by the umpire was in the 57th minute when he awarded
Andersen a penalty corner which was duly converted by Indian World Cup
player Dhanraj Pillay.
Andersen, after failing to score seven penalty corners, received their
eighth in the 57th minute and Indian import Len Ayappa flicked high into
an onrushing Maybank defender Azrul Effendy who fell onto the turf
grimacing in pain.
Instead of awarding a free hit to Maybank, umpire Kuganeswaran
surprisingly gave Andersen another penalty corner. Maybank skipper Suhairi
Saidi made a protest but Kuganeswaran, even after having a closer look at
Azrul's injury, decided not to reverse his decision.
Andersen took the penalty corner and this time Len Ayappa passed to
Dhanraj who scored after dribbling two players.
Right after the restart, Maybank made a swift attack but Mohamed
Riduan's good attempt at goal grazed the post and went out.
The match turned robust after that and Andersen defender Maninderjit
Singh took a swipe at Suhaimi Ibrahim on the run of play but was let off
the hook by the umpires.
But in the 60th minute, when Maybank's Azrul brought down S. Shanker,
umpire Kuganeswaran sent him to the sin bin.
Then in the 63rd minute, Maybank lost another important cog in their
attack when Suhaimi was sent to the sin bin for the same kind of tackle
which Maninderjit Singh did on him.
Maybank lost their shape but held on gallantly and only allowed in
another goal in the 68th minute off a Kamal Effendy field goal.
Naturally, Maybank coach Wallace Tan was irked with the three bad calls
made by the umpire.
"My men held Andersen very well until the umpire came into the picture.
He made three bad decisions and we ended up losing a game which we were
dominating.
"The ninth penalty corner, when Andersen scored, should not have been
given because it was clearly a high ball on an onrushing player. And then
we lost the match when the umpire gave my side two yellow cards but let
the Andersen players off the hook when they played robust," said Wallace.
Wallace felt that if the umpire was fair he should have also given
yellow cards to Andersen players Maninderjit and S. Suriaghandi who played
a robust game.
At the Tun Razak Stadium, Tenaga Nasional hammered Royal Malay Regiment
5-1 with goals from Nor Saiful Zaini (5th), M. Kaliswaran (15th), Tajol
Rosli (23rd, 26th) and Mahinder Singh (37th). RMR's goal was scored by
Ramli Ismail in the 43rd.
At the National Hockey Stadium in Bukit Jalil, Sapura sank the Navy men
with seven goals. The goals were scored by S. Kuhan (13th, 41st, 68th),
Nishel Kumar (25th), Jiwa Mohan (28th), A. Nagarajan (59th), K. Keevan Raj
(70th).
MHL RESULTS
ANDERSEN SC ..........2 MAYBANK ............0
SAPURA ...............7 NAVY ...............0
TENAGA ...............5 RMR ................1
jugjet@nstp.com.my
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