Sabah U-19 squad lose to Sarawak

KOTA KINABALU: The Sabah under-19 squad’s profligacy in front of goal proved to be their downfall as Sarawak secured a late 1-0 win at the Penampang Stadium yesterday.

Substitute Ahmad Azri Azizi Ahmad Sufri was the match winner for Sarawak when he rose to head home unchallenged from close range to secure victory in the Youth Cup Group B tie.

The defeat, which was Sabah’s third in a row, left the state youth side with only a single win in their opening five matches of the competition.

Sabah went into the game hoping to stop the rot but their first half performance hardly showed they were up for it while Sarawak relied heavily on Gibson Billy’s ability for a long and hard throw in to trouble the defence.

However, the squad under head coach Vun Kit Ming @ Billyton turned on the style in a much improved second half and they could have even take the lead inside five minutes of the restart.

Referee Muhammad Aqmalhakim Abdul Rahim awarded Sabah a penalty kick after striker Asymawi Sulikin was foul inside the box.

But fellow striker Mohamad Sahrizan Saidin’s tame shot was easily pushed away by Sarawak goalkeeper Aquila Anak Abd Rahman.

The home teams were unpertubed and pushed forward with Sahrizan particularly impressive down the left wing.

On the hour mark, Sabah missed yet another scoring opportunity when Asymawi’s low shot from outside of the box was cleared off the line after the ball fell to him resulting from a weak punch by Aquila earlier.

Sabah were again denied shortly and this time Ajay Jamain saw his dipping free kick tipped on the bar and out by Aquila for a fruitless corner.

It proved to be costly as Sarawak sent out a warning after that with two scoring chances in quick succession - the first drew a superb one-handed reflex save from goalkeeper Neville Remen and the follow up rattled the cross bar.

With the teams set for a share of the spoil, one of Gibson’s many long throw ins finally produced the result.

From the left side of the pitch, Gibson sent his trademark long throw into the box and Ahmad Azri was at the right place and time to head home at the far post.

The league will take a threeweek break and Sabah youth side will only return to action against Perak in Ipoh on March 31.