Jumping to safety: Terengganu’s Engku Muhd Nur Shakir Engku Yacob leaping over a challenge by Kelantan’s Khairul Helmi Johari in their Super League match. — Bernama
PETALING JAYA: The lack of new foreign signings clearly affected Kelantan’s ability to put up a strong resistance as they were mauled 8-0 by Terengganu in their own backyard on Monday.
The Kelantan fans were not only subjected to a late kick-off as the match was delayed by one- and-a-half hours due to heavy rain but had to endure an embarassing 70 minute-experience where their team was totally outplayed at the Sultan Muhd IV Stadium in Kota Baru.
Croatian Ivan Mamut struck a hattrick, scoring in the 14th, 53rd and 66th minutes.
Terengganu’s other goals came from Uzbekistan Nurillo Tukhtasinov (27th), Nik Mohd Sharif Haseefy Mohd Lazim (36th), Engku Mohd Nur Shakir Engku Yacob (41st), Safwan Mazlan (47th) and Hakimi Abdullah (63rd).
It was only in the last 20 minutes and close to midnight, when Terengganu decided to let Kelantan off the hook.
Kelantan’s woes started when football’s world governing body FIFA rejected the latest registration of four new imports - Aliakbar Ahmadi (Iran), Allie Sisse (Senegal), Ahmed Magdy (Egypt) and Dennis Buschening (Germany) - due to earlier salary issues.
Kelantan are second from bottom in the Super League with only eight points after 20 matches.
Kelantan coach Alfredo Vera said he did not understand what happened when they conceded so many goals but admitted that Terengganu played very well and were difficult to beat.
“We have performed well but we cannot interrupt their (Terengganu) game. After conceding a few goals, the morale of our players also started to drop,” said the former manager of Indonesian side Persita Tangerang, who said the only option now is to use the available players to continue their campaign for the remainder of the season after FIFA’s rejection of their registration of four new imports.
“We have to focus and use the young players available for our next opponents Johor Darul Ta’zim.”
Meanwhile, Terengganu Tomislav Steinbruckner said he was happy with the biggest winning margin notched by his team since the start of the season.
“Tonight’s match (last night) was not very difficult but it was not easy to score, but Sony (Sony Norde) made a lot of passes and the imports helped a lot. I am also happy with some of the young players who played well,” said Steinbruckner, who added he also sympathised with the plight of Kelantan, who were unable to register imported players and had to field the same line-up for the next match.
“They have only two imports, so that’s definitely an advantage for us. I don’t know how their coach (Vera) feels after the 8-0 result, it’s definitely not a good feeling,” he said.
