Last night was a new experience for football fans in Terengganu. For the first time two local teams were facing one another in the nation highest level of football competition. For the first time the Terengganu team had to use the away dressing room as they were the visiting team to T-Team, the new boy to the Malaysian Super League.
It was a rare occassion when Terengganu used their away strip as most of the time they would use their traditional colour of white when facing opponents in the past since none of them use that colour on their strips.
Despite their new boy tag, T-Team were actually made up from seasoned players with veteran skipper Rosdi Talib lending his vast experience to his T-Team team-mates. This was not the first time he was playing against his former team but for a few of his team-mates this was a new experience.
Among them were Ismail Faruqi who along with Shahrul Ezrain, Shazlan Alias and Shahril Zakaria switched camps after the end of the 2009 season. Lining up with them were defender Nor Fazly Alias and midfielder Norhisham Hassan who used to play for the Turtles a few seasons back.
There were many reasons why these players left Terengganu which added to the tension surrounding the match. Both teams had met earlier in a pre-season tournament which unfortunately saw an un-towards incident happened on the pitch.
Overall the match was played cautiously by both teams which led to the low count of any meaningful chances. It exploded into life in the last twenty minutes when Abdul Manaf Mamat scored the opener for the 'away' team. But the lead did not last long as five minutes later Premier League Golden Boot winner Harris Safwan equalised which he celebrated in his own 'unique' way, perhaps only for this occassion.
In the end it was points shared between these two local teams. Whether these matches are going to develop into a classic derby like those in Merseyside, Manchester or London will remain to be seen. Though given the state of football in Malaysia right now it will be a surprise if we will be attending the tenth derby in the future.
For Terengganu the draw left them four points behind Selangor at the top of the Super League while T-Team remained winless in four matches, three places from the bottom.
As for me, I will support both teams as much as I could because it will be good for football in the state to have teams playing top level football every season to encourage the development of the sport at grassroot levels.
Whatever it is, LETS GO TURTLES!
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