The LionsXII manager, Fandi Ahmad at long last had something to cheer about as his side fought against eminent loss to beat Pahang FA 4-1, all because of Safuwan Baharudin's strike and Sufian Anuar's hat trick.
After weeks of deploring their recklessness in front goal, LionsXII gaffer, Fandi Ahmad at long last got the execution from his group he had been requesting on Tuesday night.
The ruling Malaysia Super League champions cavorted to an extraordinary 4-1 win over table-toppers, Pahang FA at the Jalan Besar Stadium, having gone a goal down at an opportune time.
Super-sub Sufian Anuar has the spotlight. He came off the bench in the second half to rouse the hosts to see off the league's most in-form side in their greatest triumph of the season so far. His three goals, two of which came in injury time, came after Safuwan Baharudin had offset Damion Stewart's opener in the first half.
Now, Fandi was more than assuaged after the match, particularly after the LionsXII missed a couple of chances in the introductory stages.
At the post match press conference, Fandi was caught saying, “Madhu [Mohana] could have scored with an open goal and [Khairul] Amri missed a sitter, so I thought, ’Not another day of missing chances again’, but we had the better luck because we created it; we created more chances than them.”
“I thought the first 20 minutes were very bad for us.
I could see the nervousness in the players, but after the goal we had to make some changes and Safuwan went into midfield.
“The most important thing you can see is that the boys wanted to win badly today; we knew we could come back because we kept on pushing and pressing.”
Fandi additionally paid tribute to the group, particularly Sufian, despite the fact that he felt they could have scored more goals.
“I thought he (Sufian) worked very hard, he deserved it because every time he plays he is frustrated with himself and today he scored,” Fandi said after commending Sufian’s hard work.
“This is the first time we scored four goals and it means we have finally found the touch. The last two goals were well-taken, but we could have scored more goals.
“I thought everybody played very well, we hope this is the beginning and we can continue our challenge. Hopefully the other results favour us.
Most importantly is that they responded very well, this is a good sign. There are players who can step up and we are giving opportunities to everybody.”
On the other hand, Pahang’s head coach, Zainal Abidin Hassan was disillusioned with the annihilation and was reproachful of his group's execution.
“It was the worst performance ever,” Zainal said.
“I think we started well, we scored the first goal and after that everybody became relaxed and undisciplined and started taking things for granted.”
On Saturday, LionsXII will face Selangor FA at the Shah Alam Stadium.
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