Nur Insafi’s K. Keevan Raj (centre) has a go at umpire K. Lingam in the MHL match yesterday. — Picture by Fariz Iswadi Ismail.MAYBANK squeezed into the quarter-finals of the Malaysia Hockey League when they beat Nur Insafi 4-1 at the Tun Razak Stadium yesterday.
The Tigers cemented the sixth and final qualifying spot from the Premier Division with the win.
From Division One, Armed Forces Juniors qualified for the last eight by becoming champions, while Bandar Penawar, Bukit Jalil and Malacca are in the running for the last spot.
The other quarter-finals qualifiers are Kuala Lumpur Hockey Club, Tenaga Nasional, Sapura, UniKL and Yayasan Negri Sembilan.
Tenaga Nasional sealed second spot and the RM40,000 cash prize.
The Maybank-Nur Insafi match went smoothly, until the 67th minute when K. Keevan Raj, a former national player, was flashed the green card by umpire K. Lingam.
Nur Insafi's Keevan then had argument with Lingam, who flashed him the red card, which resulted in the player charging at the umpire and there was chaos for a few minutes.
Players from both sides had to restrain Keevan from attacking the umpire, and the player was escorted off the pitch.
Nur Insafi shocked Maybank with a 27th minute goal by Nur Hrsikesa but collapsed when Engku Malek scored the equaliser in the 30th minute.
The other three goals came easy with Hairul Nizam notching a hat-trick of penalty corner goals in the 48th, 56th and 65th minutes.
"It was a difficult win, as Nur Insafi also had their chances but failed to convert.
"However, now that this is over, we have two weeks to plan for the quarter-finals," said a relieved Maybank coach Wallace Tan.
Maybank still have one League match -- against Yayasan Negri Sembilan in Malacca, but it is a match of no consequences for both teams.
PREMIER DIVISION -- RESULTS Nur Insafi 1 Maybank 4, UiTM 0 Tenaga Nasional 4, Armed Forces-Airod 1 Kuala Lumpur Hockey Club 7, UniKL 2 Sapura 4.
DIVISION ONE: Today: 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 15 13 1 1 72 20 40
TNB 15 11 1 3 46 17 34
SAPURA 15 10 0 5 43 28 30
UNIKL 15 8 3 4 27 27 27
YNS 15 7 0 8 44 41 21
MAYBANK 15 4 3 8 18 25 15
NUR INSAFI 16 4 2 10 27 51 14
UITM 15 3 0 12 21 50 9
ATM 15 3 0 12 18 57 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
