Kuala Lumpur (22 January, 2017): Tenaga Nasional Berhad
(TNB) exerted their dominance over Premier Division debutants, UITM-KPT as they
came out 4-0 victors in their TNBMHL 2017 match at the Kuala Lumpur Hockey
Stadium.
TNB dominated their match
against the visitors, however, they were wasteful in front of goal especially
in the first half when they saw both their penalty corners saved by UITM’s goalkeeper,
Mohamad Adi Fazri Ab Rahim.
UITM-KPT held out to a
goalless first half and when the second half resumed, Mohamad Adi Fazri was
again the hero as he produced two fine saves to deny TNB the lead through two
more penalty corners.
However, he and his
defense were unable to prevent TNB from breaking the deadlock when Muhd Ramadan
Rosli finally converted TNB’s fifth penalty corner in the 34th
minute.
Another penalty corner
three minutes later saw Muhd Firdaus Omar adding a second for the hosts just
before Muhd Ramadan scored his second of the night through a field goal in the
41st minute.
TNB piled more misery on
UITM-KPT when Nik Muhammad Aiman Nik Rozemi got on the scoresheet after scoring
through a field goal in the 58th minute.
Coach Muhamad Amin Rahim
was satisfied with the three important points bagged in their win today,
however, he believed his team could have performed better against a young and
inexperienced UITM-KPT side.
“We will try to improve
our performance especially in our next match against top-of-the-table KLHC. We
will also welcome a possible return of Syed Mohamad Syafiq Syed Cholan and
Muhammad Hafiizhuddin Zaidi from injury as we are currently waiting for medical
clearance before fielding them in the next match,” said the former national
player.
He added, that TNB will
put up a good fight when coming up against tougher opponents such as, Kuala
Lumpur Hockey Club (KLHC) and Terengganu Hockey Team (THT).
TNB now occupy third place
with 12 points from five matches this season.
The earlier match at the
Kuala Lumpur Hockey Stadium saw UniKL’s winning streak come to an end when they
were defeated 2-0 by KLHC.
UniKL had a bright start
to the match with a series of chances going wide of the opposition’s goal including
fluffing a penalty corner which was hit directly at a KLHC defender.
In the second quarter, Lachlan Gerald Stock almost
put UniKL in front only to witness his well-taken shot coming of the foot of
the post.
KLHC, on the other hand, saw their 1st
penalty corner of the match saved by UniKL’s Argentina international
goalkeeper, Tomas Matias Santiago as both teams head into the break after a
goalless first half.
However, just 4 minutes into the second half,
Muhammad Noor Faeez Ibrahim broke the deadlock when he converted a penalty
corner to give KLHC a 1-0 lead.
It
did not take long for the hosts to add a second in the 43rd minute through
national player, Muhammad Haziq Samsul’s brilliant solo run.
UniKL
came close to reducing the deficit to a single goal just before the match ended
when Pakistan international, Muhammad Aleem Bilal’s shot from a penalty corner
flew wide of the goal.
Today’s win
for KLHC sees them leapfrog UniKL into second place who drop to fourth in the
league standings.
THT
climb to top spot after defeating Maybank 3-0 at the MBMB Hockey Stadium. The
in-form Jang Jonghyun opened the scoring as early in the 6th minute
when he converted a penalty corner before Faizal Saari gave his team a 2-0 lead
just before the end of first-half through a well taken field goal.
Muhd
Firhan Ashaari put the match beyond reach when he added the third of the night
through another field goal in the 42nd minute.
Meanwhile
at the SSTMI Hockey Stadium, TNB-Thunderbolts registered their first win of the
season when they cruised to a 3-0 victory over Tunku Ismail Sports School
(SSTMI).
It
took only five minutes for TNB-Thunderbolts to decide the outcome of the match
when Muhd. Arai Aizad Abu Kamal scored a brace in the 1st and the 5th
minute on either side of Mohd. Akhimullah Anuar Esook’s field goal in the
second minute.
TNBMHL
2017 PREMIER LEAGUE (22 January 2017):
KLHC 2 –
0 UniKL
Maybank 0
– 3 KLHC
TNB-Thunderbolts
3 – 0 SSTMI
Tenaga
Nasional Berhad 4 – 0 UITM - KPT