UNIKL lifted their maiden MHF-NSC-Milo Division One title when they held Bandar Penawar Sports School (BPSS) 1-1 at the Kuala Lumpur Hockey Stadium last night.UniKL were crowned champions on a four-goal average, as both the teams were tied on 25 points after completing their League fixtures.
UniKL pocketed RM10,000 while BPSS RM5,000 for finishing second in Division One.
The title match was entertaining with high-quality hockey played by both teams, but it was BPSS who settled down early while UniKL were shaky in the opening minutes.
And BPSS took the lead off their first penalty corner itself in the 21st minute when Shahril Saabah's low push beat goalkeeper Shahrul Azaddin. However, UniKL came back into the picture by winning six penalty corners and finally scored their equalsier in the sixth attempt.
Nor Aqmal Gaffar finally made it count in the 31st minute, and even though BPSS earned three consecutive penalty corners in the 35th minute, the store stood at 1-1 into the breather. The second half was also an entertaining affair, but both the teams failed to break the deadlock, even though UniKL were presented with many opportunities to score.
"It was a good show from my players and now that we have the League title, we will plan for a double this season," said UniKL coach S.Velappan.
BPSS won the League title last season, also on goals difference over UniKL, but then lost the Overall title to UniKL.
"We had the first half sealed, but could not convert many sitters in the second half and paid the price for it.
"However, I am not dissapointed with the players, and now we will plan to deny UniKL the Overall title," said BPSS coach Wan Roslan.
Meanwhile, in a Division Two Group A match, Matri failed to show up for their match against BPSS-WHPC and could find their entire fixtures made nul-and-void.
Even the Malaysian Hockey Federation (MHF) officials were in the dark as to why Matri did not show up at the Taman Daya Stadium in Johor Baru.
RESULTS -- DIVISION ONE: BJSS 3 BPSS Juniors 3, UniKL 1 BPSS 1.
DIVISION TWO (Group A): BPSS-WHPC v Matri (Matri failed to show up); Group B: MSSP-Juniors 1 Padang Midin 3, Tunku Besar SS 4 MSSWP-KLHC 0.
DIVISION ONE
P W D L F A Pts
UniKL 9 8 1 0 47 5 25
BPSS 9 8 1 0 46 8 25
BJSS 8 5 1 2 21 11 16
BPSS Juniors 8 3 3 2 20 20 12
BJSS Juniors 7 3 1 3 13 22 10
Anderson 8 3 1 4 15 30 10
PJCC 8 3 0 5 15 21 9
Ipoh Juniors 6 1 1 4 11 15 4
Kelantan 7 0 1 6 11 35 1
Pahang 7 0 0 7 5 29 0
DIVISION TWO
Group A
P W D L F A Pts
MSSPP-USM 5 3 2 0 19 4 11
Politeknik KPT 5 3 1 1 14 4 10
Malacca High 5 3 0 2 10 7 9
Datuk Taha 5 2 2 1 8 3 8
Matri 4 1 1 2 4 7 4
BPSS-WHPC 4 1 0 3 1 18 3
Sheikh Ahmad 4 0 0 4 1 14 0
Group B
P W D L F A Pts
Johor 6 5 0 1 17 6 15
TBSS Tampin 5 4 0 1 27 6 12
OLAK-PKT 6 2 2 2 10 19 8
Padang Midin 6 1 3 2 8 13 6
Perlis 4 1 2 1 6 7 5
MSSWP-KLHC 5 1 1 3 4 10 4
MSSPP-Jnrs 4 0 0 4 3 15 0
