All Tied...

...Up!

Last night saw the last round of matches were played in the 2011 Super League first round. The big winners were Selangor who pulled four points clear at the top of the league charts after being forced to work hard by Sabah at the Shah Alam Stadium.

This was after their nearest challengers, Terengganu and Perak cancelled each other out at the Perak Stadium in Ipoh by playing to a 1-1 draw. The Turtles remained second while The Buffaloes dropped to fourth after Kelantan halted their win-less run with a 5-1 demolition of Perlis in Kangar to climb to third spot.

At the Perak Stadium, the home side went ahead after eight minutes when Shafiq Jamil's attempt from a corner was judged by the referee to have crossed the Terengganu goal line. The Turtles levelled the score in the second half when Abdul Hadi Yahya converted a penalty for his eleven goal of the season.

 Photo credit to: hesome-yob4ever

The spot kick was awarded after Ashaari Shamsudin was brought down inside the penalty area even though Perak players protested that the foul was committed outside of it. In the end both teams had to share the spoils from this encounter.

Meanwhile PBDKT T-Team also stopped their losing run by drawing 1-1 with Johor FC at the Sultan Ismail Nasirudin Shah Stadium in Kuala Terengganu. Defender Shahrul Ezrain gave the Kuala Terengganu club side a dream start with a goal after ten minutes but T-Team failed to find the visitors' back of the net again during the match.

A number of chances fell to Indra Putra Mahyudin, Haris Safwan, Zairo Anuar and Shamsul Kamal but almost all their attempts failed to find their target or were blocked by The Bees defenders.

They were made to pay when three minutes into the second half, T-Team defenders failed to react when a corner was delivered into their box and Shahrizal Mohamad Saad took full advantage to head home the equaliser.

The second half saw T-Team continued struggling to breach the visitors defence. Towards the end of the match Indra Putra was seen pushed by a Johor FC defender when they were competing for a high ball inside the box.

The referee played the advantage but when the advantage did not come to anything, T-Team defender Azizi Matt Rose protested that a penalty should have been given to his team. However his protest came to no avail.

Then Azizi himself got into trouble when he brought down a Johor FC player as the latter was bearing down on T-Team's goal during a quick counter-attack. The referee gleefully reached for his pocket and flashed the one coloured red. The task of winning the match looked harder for the home side.

However credit to them as they continued to push the issue but once again poor finishing let them down. Zairo could have given T-Team all three points when a free-kick was awarded to T-Team at the edge of Johor FC penalty area but from an acute angle.

He managed to find the target but Terengganu born goalkeeper Suhardy Alby palmed away his shot and by the end both teams had to be content with a point each.

Teams are going to play the reverse of last night's fixtures to mark the beginning of the second round of matches in the 2011 Malaysian Super League.


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