Young Tambadaus get 4-0 thrashing

KOTA KINABALU: The State football under-19 squad suffered a 4-0 home defeat to Kedah in the Youth Cup League Group B match at the Penampang Stadium near here, yesterday.

The young Tambadaus trailed 3-0 at the break as Kedah opened with a penalty goal just four minutes into the match.

The visitors got the penalty after a Sabah player committed a handball and Muhamad Syabani Mohd Saberi made no mistake from the spot to put his team ahead.

Later, Kedah scored in quick succession to kill Sabah’s hope of getting back into the game.

Afif Awwadi Ahmad Tajuddin capitalised on an open goal to make it 20 in the 18th minute after Fahmi Ikhwan Muhamad Azmi came off his line to deal with a threat.

Three minutes later Kedah made it 3-0 with Syabani scoring again from a neat cross by Afif.

Billyton Vun Kit Ming gave what he could to inspire his boys but the Sabah head coach was left reeling once more when Kedah scored again just three minutes into the second half.

Muhamad Hazim Ramli took credit for the solo goal, sweeping the ball from a defender and sidestepping another before slotting home the winner.

Sabah pulled everything out of the fat to try and get something back only to have their attempts thwarted by their mighty opponent.

As such, the victory margin could have been bigger for the 2017 league winners. Kedah’s relentless attacks caused all sorts of problems for Sabah defenders.

It could easily have been 5-0 or 6-0 but thanks to Fahmi Ikhwan’s quick reaction, damage had been limited despite serious threats including several one-on-one encounters in front of goal.