Kelantan coach Sathit happy despite defeat

was a reversal of fortunes for Sathit Bensoh when he took Kelantan to the Hang Jebat Stadium on Saturday as Melaka ran out 2-1 winners in the Super League’s opening weekend.

It was at the same venue that Kelantan secured their top-flight survival in the last game of the 2017 season when Alessandro Celin’s two late goals gave Sathit a 3-1 win in his first game in charge after stepping in for Zahasmi Ismail for the rescue mission.

On his return to the Hang Jebat Stadium, however, a muchchanged Kelantan side deprived of injured goalkeeper Khairul Fahmi Che could not recapture the high of their last visit.

“I’m satisfied with my players and the situation in the game,” Kelantan coach Sathit told TV9 after the match.

“We started well and then after that we made a good comeback.

“We prevented them from building up their attack but we lost concentration when they used long balls. We made a mistake and I regret we gave them chances.

“But this is football, you have to respect them when they work hard and fight hard. We now have to look forward.”

When Bruno Lopes scored in the second minute, it seemed Kelantan were ready to carry on from where they left off last season only for Yahor Zubovich and Jeon Woo-young, with a penalty, to turn the game around for Melaka.

“We have to keep motivation up and not look down,” said Sathit, who started with youngsters Haikal Nazri and Fadhilah Pauzi.

“Because we played well but if we did not play well, then I understand.

“It is important that when go home to play on Tuesday (against Terengganu) we have to be strong. This is the first game, it is the start of the league and it is not finished. We need to fight in the second game.”

Melaka coach Eduardo Almeida’s side featured even more changes than Kelantan and the Portuguese is pleased to start off with a win.

“We hope to improve game by game but the most important thing today was to start on the right foot with three points,” he said.

“The mix of players we have makes for a good and consistent team which is what we are trying to do.

“We played with six new players so we cannot expect the team to be perfect now. We need to work to create better understanding between each other.”