Forces surprise National Juniors

25/10/2002

NATIONAL Juniors were taught an important lesson for taking Armed Forces
for granted, when they were held to a 2-2 draw in their Razak Cup match at
the National Hockey Stadium in Bukit Jalil yesterday.
Armed Forces, thrashed 8-0 by Johor the previous day, shocked the
Juniors with a first minute penalty corner goal through Mohamed Nor Saad.
And after 10 minutes of pinning their opponents down in their
semicircle, Sulaiman Bujang scored a field goal, and it looked like the
Juniors were in for a hammering.
But the boys kept their cool under tremendous pressure to make a
comeback with a 29th minute goal. Redzuan Nasir scored off a penalty
corner to narrow the gap.
The face-saving equaliser came through Azlan Misron in the 51st minute.
"It was a good lesson for the boys not to take any team for granted.
They played badly in the first 10 minutes and paid with being down two
goals. But I am hapy with their character because they fought back and
secured a draw which could take us into the semifinals," said Juniors
coach Stephen van Huizen.
In the other match, Negri Sembilan were easily the better side yesterday
but Johor collected three points in the last three minutes of the match to
keep alive their target of finishing third.
But after 35 minutes of running around in the afternoon heat, the ageing
stars of Johor Sarjit Singh, Lim Chiow Chuan and K. Dharmaraj started to
gasp and pant.
Negri's Syayrim Uda Karim gave them the lead in the 51st minute and it
looked like Johor were in for a drubbing.
But in the last three minutes, two mistakes by 19-year-old Malaysia
Games player Mahendran Thevar handed Johor the win on a silver platter.
The first was when Johor lost the ball in the left flank in the 68th
minute to Lee who took a shot from outside the semircle, but just as the
ball was harmlesly travelling into goal, Mahendran stopped it for Johor's
Lim to score the equaliser.
And in the 69th minute, Mahendran stopped the ball on the right side of
the goalmouth, dragged it along the goalline and all Johor's Lee had to do
was jab it into the goalmouth.
Perak won their second match yesterday, beating Malacca 3-2. The Perak
hat-trick hero was national player K. Gobinatha who scored of penalty
corners in the third, 39th and 41st minutes. The Malacca goals were scored
by Abdul Hadi Adam and Mohamed Nor Othman (66th).
In the last match, Kuala Lumpur hammered Selangor 5-1 with goals from
Amin Rahim (6th), M. Kaliswaran (16th), Nor Saiful Zaini (28th, 49th) and
Faizal Daud (37th). The Selangor goal was scored by K. Givanathan
(seventh).
Today - Perak v Selangor (4pm, pitch 1), Penang v Malacca (6pm, pitch
1).
Tomorrow: Kedah v National Juniors (4pm, pitch 1), Armed Forces v Negri
Sembilan (6pm, pitch 1), Johor v Pahang (8pm, pitch 1). RESULTS
Johor 2 Negri 1; Malacca 2 Perak 3; Nat Juniors 2 Forces 2; Pahang 0
Kedah 0; Selangor 1 KL 5.
(END)