Coach Sarjit is concerned with Terengganu's poor finishing
KUALA LUMPUR: Sarjit Singh, coach of double champions Terengganu, is concerned with his team’s inconsistency in the Malaysia Hockey League (MHL).
And that, he believes, is due to two factors – poor finishing and woeful penalty conversion rate.
“We have been let down by poor finishing. Forward Faizal (Saari), who was the top scorer in the last two seasons (with 17 goals in 2015 and 16 goals in 2014), has been firing blanks in four matches,” said Sarjit.
“As for penalty corners, we earned a total of 24 in four matches but only managed to convert four despite having three penalty corner specialists.”
His three penalty corner drag flickers are Faizal, South Korean Jang Jong-hyun and Pakistani Muhammad Irfan Aslam.
Sarjit is right to be worried by his team’s dismal form.
Although powered by six foreigners, they fell to their second defeat in the Premier Division on Sunday, losing 2-0 to Sapura at the Tun Razak Stadium.
Terengganu are now in fourth spot in the six-team standings with four points from a win, a draw and two losses.
Sarjit’s men began the season on a losing note, going down to Kuala Lumpur Hockey Club (KLHC) 2-1 at home in the Charity Shield match on Aug 19.
And today, Terengganu will renew their rivalry with KLHC when the teams meet in the quarter-finals of the Tan Sri P. Alagendra Knockout Trophy at the Batu Buruk Hockey Stadium in Kuala Terengganu. Both teams were given a bye in the first round.
Their poor start to the season has only heaped more pressure on them to beat high-riding KLHC, who are undefeated in the Premier Division.
“We have to play a tight marking game ... and we cannot afford to miss chances. We lost to them once, we cannot afford another defeat,” said Sarjit.
KLHC coach Harun Al-Rashid knows only too well that it won’t be easy to beat Terengganu for a second time in their own backyard.
“They will be going all out to avenge their opening-day defeat. I’m also concerned with my own back line as they failed to defend well in the league match against Tenaga on Sunday,” said Harun.
KLHC were leading 2-0 with seven minutes left to play when Tenaga staged a fightback to score two goals to snatch a 2-2 draw.
The other closely contest quarter-final match will be between Tenaga and Universiti Kuala Lumpur (UniKL). In the league match, UniKL edged Tenaga 1-0.