Sarawak seems to be preparing their home fans for a huge change in the Malaysian Premier League standings by next weekend after they continued their perfect record at home by beating KL SPA Putrajaya FC.
The Crocs which are still unbeaten in the league however almost drove themselves out of the Premier League race when sloppy football from almost every department of the Crocs allowed the visiting SPA FC the lead in the 43rd minute of the first half.
Fans whom were expecting a drubbing of the visiting team were however entertained with a lackluster Sarawak team which allowed SPA FC room to dribble and create havoc in the Crocs half.
Despite a few efforts from Muamer Salibasic, Zamri Morshidi, Joseph Kallang Tie and Bobby Gonzales, the Crocs were hugely disappointing in the first half of the game as the more eager threat came from SPA FC who used their good dribbling skills to skin Sarawak’s defense lead by Ramesh Lai.
SPA FC got the lead the deserved when a defensive error by the Crocs allowed the ball to drop right in front of an awaiting Joel Armel Ngalaha who made no mistake to floor it into the goal.
The Crocs came out for the second half eager to win, but SPA FC again showed the home side that they needed to be better if they wanted to take the game.
Three dangerous crosses right in front of Sarawak’s goal almost resulted in SPA FC extending their lead, but poor finishing and heroics from Sani Anuar kept the score at bay.
Probably just awaken, Sarawak started to raid SPA FC with their arsenal of attacks with an evident tactical switch made by Robert Alberts proving its magic.
Salibasic came close to leveling the score after he defeated not less than five players around him, only to have the reinforcements blocking his shot on goal. A goal that came later for Sarawak was also waved off by the referee for a foul.
Moments later, Sarawak had a penalty kick turned down by the referee, whom instead awarded a free kick from just outside the box to Guy Bwele for a foul.
Bwele however made the free kick count when he calmly swayed in a beautiful kick to the roar of about 17,000 Sarawak fans in the stands.
The goal injected more spark in Sarawak as they upped their game tempo in search for another goal, but the couple of free kicks after that failed to even rattle the SPA FC goal post.
In the 69th minute, two powerful shots on goal by Salibasic and Junior Eldstal gave Sarawak a valuable throw in, and Ronny Harun made it greatly count by feeding the ball directly to Bobby who cheekily headed in Sarawak’s second goal of the night.
The home side made another move soon after their second goal, but Bobby failed to lob in the ball fed to him by Sani, despite already defeating the goalkeeper of SPA FC.
As the game progressed to the final minutes, Alberts took out Bobby from the game, and put in utility player Mazwandi Zekaria.
However, there was close to nothing more to be done as the referee, who had a change of shirt during the break, called it a night for Sarawak to arrange what can be considered the most anticipated game of the Premier League this coming Friday against league leaders Sime Darby FC.
Final score: Sarawak 2-1 KL SPA Putrajaya FC
