It was a smashing day for Melaka United at the Hang Jebat Stadium on Sunday as they romped to a big 6-1 win to enhance their Malaysia Cup quarter-final hopes from Group B.
The Cops were down to nine players – with two sackings in a spate of five minutes when Hazwan Fakrullah (47th) and Khairul Abdullah (51st) minutes were booted out for red card offenses.
The numerical advantage gave Melaka the edge and showed no mercy against the Cops in the second round match after the first round encounter at the same venue ended in a 2-2 stalemate last week.
Melaka opened the floodgates as early as the 11th minute via a penalty which was converted by Idefayo Olusegun after Egor Zubovich was felled inside the box. This was all pumped up Melaka needed to take control of the match.
On loan from JDT II Shahrul Azwari hit a brace in the 13th and 45th minutes and Melaka were cruising before the break.
Any hopes of a Police revival in the second half were dealt a cruel blow with the double sacking as Singapore import Shahdan Sulaiman and Zubovich scored in the 56th and 70th minutes respectively.
Despite the disadvantage in numbers, Police did pull one back and this came in the 86h minute when Nabil Latif found the net.
Felada United lead Group B with seven points from three matches while Melaka with six points from four matches occupies second place with six points. PKNS FC has four points from three outings with Police at the bottom with one point.
Meanwhile in a Group C match played at the Petaling Jaya Stadium in Kelana Jaya, MIC MIFA also saw red in their 2-2 draw.
Kedah took the lead on 31 minutes through Sandro Da Silva. Seydi L’lman, on loan from Kelantan, headed in MIFA’s equalizer in the 51st minute after Sean Sherman was red carded in the last minute of first-half for a foul on Kedah’s Liridon Kraniqi.
Halim Saari regained the lead for Kedah but R. Barathkumar’s equalizer in the 81st minute was enough for MIFA to share the spoils.
MIFA is top of the group with seven points followed by JDT on six, Kedah on five and Kelantan on four. RIZAL ABDULLAH
