Turtles can breathe easy after two wins on the trot

PETALING JAYA: It’s early days still, but Terengganu can at least breathe easy.

Things are looking up for the Turtles after a poor run of six straight defeats, which even resulted in veteran coach Abdul Rahman Ibrahim quitting the team late last month.

The 69-year-old’s tenure ended after the Turtles failed to record a single win in the Super League since April. The east coast side fell from third to eighth spot in the 12-team standings.

During the bad spell, Terengganu were also knocked out of the FA Cup semi-finals on the away goals rule after being held 4-4 (on aggregate) by eventual champions Lions XII on May 16.

Under assistant coach Ahmad Yusof, the east coast side have notched two straight wins – 4-2 against Sarawak on Saturday and 2-0 against Sime Darby on Wednesday.

Terengganu skipper Ahmad Nordin Alias believes they have found the right formula to stop the rot.

“It is a team effort. We gathered information on our weaknesses and the areas we needed to improve on. Once we had identified the problems, everything fell into place. The goals are coming and we’re playing better now,” said Ahmad Nordin.

The 29-year-old is confident that they can continue with their revival and will be aiming for a top-four finish in the Super League this season.

“The players are now confident and motivated. We want to build on this and get another win. We believe we can achieve this (top four) target,” he said.

But it won’t be easy, not when they’ve lost last season’s Golden Boot winner Paulo Rangel of Brazil to a three-month ban. The FA of Malaysia ( FAM) disciplinary committee slapped Rangel with the ban for abusing match officials during the ill-tempered FA Cup semi-final return-leg match against Lions XII at the Sultan Mizan Zainal Abidin Stadium in Gong Badak on May 16.