Tenaga protest Faizal demerit..

TENAGA Nasional might be severely crippled as their prolific goal-scorer Faizal Saari could be ruled out of the first leg semi-finals aginst Sapura in the Premier Division of the Malaysia Hockey League on Oct 4.
  The second semi-finals would be between Kuala Lumpur Hockey Club (KLHC) and Maybank.
  Faizal had scored 18 goals out of Tenaga Nasional's 26 total, but he might warm the bench in the first leg after picking up a yellow card against KLHC yesterday.
  It brought his total demerit points to ten:"The demerit points were discussed in the managers meeting and agreed that it would be carried foward until the end, and we will stick to it," said Tournament Director V. Rajamanickam.
  However, Tenaga Nasional manager Samsul Ariffin said he does not agree with the tournament director.
  "We need to see the rules and the minutes of the team managers meeting stating that demerit points would be carried foward into the knock-out stage.
  "It has been the precedent since the MHL was incepted that demerit points end at the League level, and not carried foward to the knock-out stages. So I strongly protest my player being victimised," said Samsul.
  MHC secretary Johari Aziz than clarified that the decision was not minuted but Tenaga must follow the tournament regulation.
  KLHC team manager George Koshy, who will also lose Ahmad Kazamirul to demerit points for the first leg, then said that the eight teams in the Premier and Division One semi-finals should decide if the demerit points are valid or not.
  All eight teams then voted to abolish the demerit points at the end of the League, and the technical committee then decided to discuss the matter today before making a stand on the matter.
  Meanwhile, Razie Rahim scored a hat-trick to hand Tenaga Nasional their first defeat of the season.
  Kuala Lumpur Hockey Club (KLHC) came back from two goals down to beat Tenaga Nasional Berhad 4-3, and also avenged their 3-4 defeat to Tenaga in the first round of the MHL.
  Amir Fariq (17th) and Shazril Irwan (21st) gave Tenaga a 2-0 lead, but KLHC skipper started the fight-back with a penalty corner deflection goal in the 25th minute.
  Razie then scored a brace in the 39th and 46th minutes but Faizal Saari levelled the terms for Tenaga off a penalty stroke in the 64th minute. But Razie had the final word, deftly scoring the fourth KLHC goal in the 67th minute for full points.
 

PREMIER DIVISION


                P  W  D  L  F    A  Pts
KLHC            10 8  1  1  49  14  25
TNB             10 4  5  1  26  21  17
Sapura          10 4  4  2  24  21  16
Maybank         10 3  3  4  21  26  12
UniKL           10 2  2  6  19  28  8
Nur Insafi      10 1  1  8  22  51  4

DIVISION ONE

                 P  W  D  L  F  A  Pts

Forces           6  4  2  0  12  4   14
Thunderbolt      6  4  1  1  12  6   13
BJSS             6  4  0  2  27 18   12
Johor HA         6  3  0  3  16  16  9
Uniten           6  2  1  3  10  12  7
UiTM             6  2  0  4  10  19  6
Politeknik       6  0  0  6  7  19   0


  RESULTS -- Premier Division: Sapura 6 Nur Insafi-MBI 5, Tenaga 3 KLHC 4, Maybank 2 UniKL 3. 
  Oct 4: Premier Division Semi-finals (first leg) -- KLHC v Maybank (National Stadium Pitch II, 6pm), Tenaga Nasional v Sapura (National Stadium Pitch II, 8pm).
  Division One Semi-finals -- Armed Forces v Bukit Jalil (National Stadium Pitch I, 6pm), Thunderbolts v Johor HA (National Stadium Pitch I, 8pm).
  Oct 7: Premier Division Semi-finals (second leg) -- Maybank v KLHC (National Stadium Pitch II, 6pm), Sapura v Tenaga Nasional (National Stadium Pitch II, 8pm).
  Division One Semi-finals -- Bukit Jalil v Armed Forces (National Stadium Pitch I, 6pm), Johor HA v Thunderbolts (National Stadium Pitch I, 8pm).