THREE-TIME consecutive double winners Thunderbolts received an early wake-up call when they were held to a 2-2 draw by Petaling Jaya City Council (PJCC) in Division One of the MHC-MILO-NSC Junior Hockey League at the Bukit Jalil Stadium yesterday.
Thunderbolts took a 2-0 lead, but after that, they started missing sitters and two penalty corner goals from PJCC saw them sharing the spoils.
The Thunderbolts goals were scored by zulharmizan awang (12th) and husaini husin (40th) while the hero for PJCC was Husaini Abu Bakar who nailed his brace in the 60th and 69th minutes.
"You can call it an early wake up call for us as we failed to score sitters and the penalty corners did not work as well today (yesterday). And I believe if there was more playing time, PJCC could have even won the match because they were all over us in the last five minutes of the match," said Thunderbolts coach Wan Roslan Wan Rahman.
However, Wan Roslan said their title quest is still on sight: "The draw is a small set-back but I believe we are still good enough to defend out League title."
PJCC manager Zainal Abidin was all smiles, as he expected a hammering from the champions.
"After two strong matches by Thunderboolts we were ready for the worse, but after a second half-shelling the boys finally started to take control of the match and we are very proud of them," said Zainal.
In another Divison One match, UniKL hammered BJSS seniors 6-1.
"We still have many more matches to go and some of the teams like UniKL will be hard to crack, so this draw should motivate my players to play much better in the remaining matches," said Zainal.
RESULTS: Division One: Thunderbolts Jnrs 2 Olak PKDT Tigers 1; PJCC 2 Thunderbolts 2; UniKL 6 BJSS 1.
Division Two: Group A: 1MAS Perak 2 KLSS 2, SM Sains Raja Tun Azlan Shah x MSNT-PHT x.
Group B: 1MAS Perlis 2 ISMO PHA 2; MSSD Larut Matang 0 MSS Kedah 10.
Group C: 1MAS Malacca 2 1MAS TBSS Tampin 2, SMK Tun Hussein 1 SMKDBL PHJ 9.
TODAY: Division One -- KLHC v Thunderbolts (KLHA, 4.45pm), SSP Thunderbolts v SSTMI Jnrs (Temerloh, 4.45pm), UniKL v Politeknik (NHS II, 6.45pm).
Division Two: Group A -- Tunku Abdul Rahman v MSN-PHT (Azlan Shah, 4.45pm); Group B: SM Agama Matri v ISMO PHA (Kangar, 4.45pm), 1MAS Penang v MSS Kedah (Sg Petani, 4.45pm); Group C: SMSJ Knight v SMK Datuk Taha (Batu Pahat, 4.45pm).