It’s a three-horse race for the MHL Premier Division title
KUALA LUMPUR: Terengganu, KL Hockey Club (KLHC) and Tenaga Nasional are in the running for the Malaysia Hockey League (MHL) Premier Division title.
The East Coast team lead the six-team standings with 18 points while star-studded KLHC are a point adrift. Tenaga are third with 16 points.
All three teams have two matches left to play. Terengganu take on TNB-Thunderbolt today before facing KLHC on Friday.
Defending league champions KLHC take on Tenaga today. Tenaga wrap up their fixtures against Universiti Kuala Lumpur (UniKL) on Friday.
Terengganu will start as favourites against Thunderbolt, who comprise players with an average age of only 19. They outplayed Thunderbolt 6-2 in the first-round match.
Terengganu coach Sarjit Singh said they needed to collect full points against Thunderbolt to stay on course for the league title.
“Thunderbolt are no pushovers as they have young players who give their best in every match. They run for every ball and are fast on the counter attacks.
“We need to take our chances well as we learned our lesson against Maybank last Sunday. We came back from a goal down to win 2-1,” said Sarjit.
KLHC can expect a torrid time with Tenaga, who beat them 4-2 in the first round.
Tenaga forward Nik Muhd Aiman Nik Rozemi said they still had a chance to win the title and it would all depend on the outcome against KLHC.
“We’ve beaten KLHC in the first round and we can do it again. But it’s not going to be easy this time as KLHC have improved a lot.
“We need to focus on our penalty corners as our conversion rate is rather poor.
“We also need to play well defensively as KLHC have skilful forwards. We also can’t afford to concede penalty corners,” said Muhd Aiman.
KLHC coach Lim Chiow Chuan said his team did very well to beat UniKL 3-1 last Sunday but expected another tough encounter.
“It’ll be another tough match against Tenaga,” he said.
“We just want to make sure that we recover well and maintain our good performance.”