Think big, urges Balachandran

MINISTRY of Finance (MOF) coach S. Balachandran wants his team to play like a Premier League club in their pursuit of winning promotion from the FAM Cup this season.

The club showed their prowess last weekend by thrashing Terengganu’s Hanelang 5-0 in Bangi to lead Group A with 10 points, two more than secondplaced Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM).

Former international Rudie Ramli (35th and 73rd) and Aikal Aiman Azlan (20th, 65th) scored a brace each with the other goal from Akmal Mohd Noor (57th).

“My team are training hard and playing well but I want them to show the physical and mental attributes of players in the Premier League.

“We are heading in the right direction but we need to get better,” said Balachandran recently.

MOF grabbed headlines in the FA Cup by reaching the third round but they failed to progress further following a 4-2 defeat to Premier League side Sabah two weeks ago.

“It was a good experience playing Sabah in the FA Cup. We led 21 after 14 minutes before Sabah picked up the pace and won.

“We matched Sabah in some periods but their foreigners made the difference.”

In other group matches, Felcra edged KL City Hall 1-0 at UM Stadium while Shahzan Muda were held 0-0 by UKM at Temerloh Stadium.

In Group B, Malacca Water Corporation Berhad (SAMB FC) lead with eight points, one more than Petaling Jaya Rangers while Sime Darby are third on six points.