Faris Ramli (extreme left) celebrates his debut goal with his LionsXII teammates. (Photo © Roy Sim/FAS. Used with permission)
Jalan Besar Stadium, Saturday, February 16, 2013 — The Singapore LionsXII made it three successive wins on home ground after a 3-0 victory over high-flying Pahang in the Malaysian Super League (MSL).
This was the second clean sheet in six games for the LionsXII, and their biggest win of the MSL season so far. The win also puts them second on the league table, just ahead of Pahang on goal difference.
It was a dream debut for Faris Ramli as he scored in the 12th minute. Safuwan Baharudin and Fazrul Nawaz got the other goals for the LionsXII.
Another debutant, Zulfahmi Arifin, also had a good show for LionsXII, partnering Isa Halim in the centre-midfield position. He also played alongside Hariss Harun, who returned to the fold after nursing an injury. Hariss came on for Isa Halim in the 20th minute, after the latter took a knock in an aerial challenge.
After Faris’ 12th minute opener for the LionsXII, there were chances aplenty for the home side. Fazrul Nawaz had a goal ruled out for offside in the 35th minute. Then Shahfiq Ghani almost doubled the lead for the LionsXII after he dribbled past Razman Roslan (Pahang #13) and Saiful Nizam (Pahang #3) but skied his effort from just five yards out.
In the second half, Fazrul had another goal disallowed in the 56th minute for offside. Almost instantaneously, the action shifted to the Singapore half of the pitch where R Gopinathan (#24) goal found the back of the net. But his goal was ruled offside as well.
An unmarked Safuwan scored the second goal for the LionsXII in the 64th minute with a header.
Fazrul’s hard work finally paid off in the 76th minute when he scored the third goal for LionsXII.
Captain Shahril Ishak could have added two more goals late in the game but they went astray.
Pahang coach Dollah Salleh was full of praise for the LionsXII.
He said: “I think LionsXII played their best game tonight. He (Faris Ramli) is the best player tonight. He showed something tonight even though this is his first game in the league. He is skilful and experienced and my players were talking about him at half time and we didn’t expect LionsXII to play fast football.”
The big win was a unexpected for LionsXII head coach V Sundramoorthy.
“We didn’t expect to beat Pahang by three goals. We had prepared well for this game, and we knew they have fast and good technical players. They had scored in every game, and you can see that tonight, they had their chances as well,” said Sundram.
“We were playing with confidence and we could see that the fans are enjoying the passing (flowing) football,” added Sundram.
On Hariss’ comeback to the team, Sundram said: “He has added strength to our squad and he helped to shield the two centre-backs. He can make a difference to the team. We had also brought on Faris (Ramli) Zulfahmi and Shahfiq, who linked up well with Shahril and Fazrul on the attacking front.”
Sundram was confident about their next match away at Johor Darul Takzim.
He said: “We can compete with Johor and we have every chance to beat them.”
