Nur Insafi see red, out of last eight

UMPIRE K. Lingam trying to restrain Nur Insafi's K. Keevan Raj from attacking him in the match against Maybank at the Tun Razak Stadium. Keevan was flashed the red card, and his team lost 4-1 and were bundled out of the quarter-finals.

KLHC lift League title with 2spares

KUALA Lumpur Hockey Club (KLHC) were made to

sweat for 37 minutes, before Nur Insafi cracked 5-0

to hand them their sixth League title in the Premier

Division of the Malaysia Hockey League yesterday.

Four of the titles (three League and one Overall)

came under the Ernst & Young banner, while the

other two League titles from the evolved KLHC.

The League title and RM60,000 was won with two

matches to spare, against Armed Froces-Airod

today and Tenaga Nasional next weekend.

However, KLHC must have broken into cold

sweat in the dressing room, as the score stood at

0-0 at the half-time hooter.

But former national player Chua Boon Huat gave

them a lifeline with a 37th minute field goal, his

13th this season, and forced the flood-gates open

wide.

The other goals came easy with Tengku Ahmad

Tajuddin scoring back-to-back in the 39th and 45th

minutes, while Amerullah Aziz (50th) and Ahmad

Anuar (55th).

KLHC team manager George Koshy was a little

worried initially, but a half-time lecture in the

dressing room did the trick.

"It was close in the first half as Nur Insafi had

their chances, but a 'good lecture' in the dressing

room woke them up and now we will have to work

towards lifting the Overall title," said George.

On players: "Chua and Ismail (Abu) who are both

former players, contributed immensely in our

campaign and took some of the burden off the

regular goalscorers in the national team like

Tengku (Ahmad Tajuddin)," said George.

"We expected a defeat anyway as KLHC are too

strong for any team in this tournament, and are not

overly worried, as our target is to beat Maybank

(today) and confirm our spot in the quarter-finals,"

said team manager S. Thaitchana.

The first match saw a bizzare ending as

bottom-of-the-table UiTM beat Yayasan Negri

Sembilan (YNS) 3-2 in a rain interrupted match.

Torrential rain stopped play in the 45th minute,

and UiTM were spared the agony of playing the

remaining 25 minutes because they only had two

reserves as eight players could not make it for the

match.

UiTM goals were scored by Ikmal Jabar (10th),

Rashid Baharom (33rd) and Faheed Saifullah (42nd).

YNS, who had the full squad as all their Pakistan

players had returned after playing in a domestic

tournament, got their goals off Pakistanis'

Muhammad Imran (seventh) and Shakeel Abbasi

(29th).

PREMIER DIVISION: RESULTS -- UiTM 3 Yayasan

Negri Sembilan 2, Nur Insafi 0 Kuala Lumpur

Hockey Club 5, UniKL 1 Tenaga Nasional 5, Sapura

4 Maybank 0.

TODAY: Nur Insafi v Maybank (4pm), UiTM v

Tenaga Nasional (6pm), Armed Forces-Airod v

Kuala Lumpur Hockey Club (8pm), UniKL v Sapura

(KLHA, 6.30pm).

*All other matches at the Tun Razak Stadium.

DIVISION ONE: Results -- Malacca CC 1 Ipoh City

Hall 1, Universiti Sains Malaysia 0 Bukit Jalil

Sports School 5, UniTen 0 Bandar Penawar Sports

School 5.

Sunday: Malacca CC v Bukit Jalil Sports School

(Malacca, 5pm), Universiti Sains Malaysia v Bandar

Penawar Sports School (USM, 5pm), UniTen v

Armed Forces Juniors (KLHA, 5pm).

PREMIER DIVISION

P W D L F A Pt

KLHC 14 12 1 1 65 19 37

TNB 14 10 1 3 42 17 31

UNIKL 14 8 3 3 25 23 27

SAPURA 14 9 0 5 39 26 27

YNS 15 7 0 8 44 41 21

NUR INSAFI 15 4 2 9 26 47 14

MAYBANK 14 3 3 8 14 24 12

ATM 14 3 0 11 17 50 9

UITM 14 3 0 11 21 46 9

DIVISION ONE

P W D L F A Pt

ATM JNR 10 9 1 0 27 7 28

BPSS 10 6 0 4 21 15 18

BJSS 10 5 1 4 24 13 16

MALACCA CC 11 5 1 5 15 13 16

IPOH CH 12 4 3 5 19 24 15

USM 11 3 0 8 16 33 9

UNITEN 10 1 2 7 9 26 5

DIVISION ONE

P W D L F A Pt

ATM JNR 10 9 1 0 27 7 28

BPSS 10 6 0 4 21 15 18

BJSS 10 5 1 4 24 13 16

MALACCA CC 11 5 1 5 15 13 16

IPOH CH 12 4 3 5 19 24 15

USM 11 3 0 8 16 33 9

UNITEN 10 1 2 7 9 26 5