Kuala Lumpur pound Forces

24/01/2003

KUALA Lumpur notched another double digit score in the National Under-21
tournament when they hammered Armed Forces 10-0 at the National Hockey
Stadium in Bukit Jalil yesterday.
KL now have nine points from three matches with an impressive 26 goals
scored. The first dozen by KL was against Kelantan.
Following closely in Group A are Malacca who beat Singapore 4-2 for nine
points from four matches.
Malacca meet Armed Forces today, and they should get three more points,
but their last match against KL tomorrow will surely be lop-sided as the
City boys are in awesome form.
And this is where Johor, with six points, could overtake them in the
race to the semi-finals.
Malacca were three-up by the 22nd minute with goals from Nor Ikram
Sulaiman (13th), Mohamed Fazwan (15th) and Nazmi Kamaruddin (22nd) before
Singapore pulled one back in the 23rd off Lim Shi Hee.
But four minutes later, Nor Hamezi Omar increased the Malacca tally and
just before the half-time whistle, Singapore got their second off a
Mohamed Farhan penalty corner.
Malacca coach Paramjit Singh said with nine points in hand, his players
will surely give their best in the remaining two matches.
"There is no more reason to hold back and I will expect 70 minutes of
solid hockey from my team against Armed Forces (today) and Kuala Lumpur
(tomorrow). The first match should be ours but the second will be the
toughest.
"KL can expect my boys to fight for every ball so they had better be
ready," said Paramjit.
KL have In Group B, New South Wales of Australia nailed their third
victims when they beat Negri Sembilan 4-0.
NSW AIS should have no problems reaching the semi-finals as they only
need a win against either Penang today or Perlis on Sunday.
Meanwhile, Perlis beat Penang 2-0 for their third consecutive victory
and the only team who can stop their progress into the semi-finals are
Pahang who they meet tomorrow.
The Perlis goals were scored by Azrul Azizan in the 17th minute and
Amirul Abdullah in the 60th minute.
Johor, in Group A, made progress when they beat Perak 3-1 and they
should challenge Malacca for the second semi-final spot as they only have
to beat weak sides Armed Forces and Kelantan next.
RESULTS AT A GLANCE
NSW AIS .................4 N SEMBILAN ................0
Alex Hardman (5th)
Mathew Naylor (25th, 64th)
Mark Patterson (53rd)
KUALA LUMPUR ...........10 ARMED FORCES ..............0
Azlan Misron (8th, 14th)
Tajol Rosli (10th, 69th)
Engku Abdul Malek (14th, 45)
Kamaruddin Rahman (23rd)
Kelvinder Singh (30th)
Jivan Mohan (38th, 54th)
SINGAPORE ...............2 MALACCA ...................4
Lim Shi Hee (23rd) Nor Ikram Sulaiman (13th)
Mohamed Farhan (30th) Mohamed Fazwan (15th)
Nazmi Kamarudin (22nd)
Nor Hamezi Omar (27th)
PAHANG ..................5 SELANG0R ..................0
Shahrun Nabil (3rd)
Suffian Mohamed (7th, 45th)
Al Fadhir Kassim (38th)
Ismail Abu (58th)
JOHOR ...................3 PERAK .....................1
Nor Affazly Ghaffar (6th) Abdul Hadi Adam (39th)
Amir HAmzah (22nd)
Baljit Singh (52nd)
PENANG ..................0 PERLIS ....................2
Azrul Azizan (17th)
Amirul Abdullah (60th)
(END)