Malaysia 1 Britain 3

SIZE does matter, and Malaysia found out the hard way when they struggled to stay on their feet when push-came-to-shove and lost 3-1 to Britain in the 20th Edition of the Azlan Shah Cup in Ipoh last night.
Watched by a supportive crowd of 5,000 fans, Malaysia got their basics right and held a tight reign on the world no 4 and Olympic hosts, but a silly mistake in the 17th minute gave away a penalty corner.
James Tindall converted, but Malaysia kept on pushing with Hafifihafiz Hanafi and Faizal Saari making inroads, but failed to click in the semi-circle.
And just as the clock showed 35 seconds remaining in the first half, Richard Smith connected a cross which beat goalkeeper Roslan Jamaluddin for their second goal.
Yesterday, coach Tai Beng Hai rested No 1 goalkeeper S. Kumar and Kelvinder Singh, and skipper Madzli Ikmar, Baljit Singh and Radzi Rahim took care of the back-line.
The national side showed many shades of improvement from their Asian Games style, and their confidence was boosted when Tengku Ahmad Tajuddin scored a stunner in the 41st minute.
Tengku collected the ball on the blind side, and his reverse stick grounder went between the legs of goalkeeper James Fair and Malaysia were back in the matc h.
However, in the 51st minute Robert Moore was gifted an open goal as he was left unmarked todeflect in the third goal past Roslan.
Malaysia lost the opening match, and will face another torrid time against world no 1 Australia today.