HOSTS Terengganu retained the men’s football title in style, thrashing Perlis 5-1 in the final played in front of a capacity crowd of 50,000 at the Sultan Mizan Zainal Abidin Stadium in Gong Badak last night.
Terengganu, who had several players from their Super League side, were without doubt the far superior side with their attacking flair and could have won by a bigger margin.
Champs again: Terengganu players celebrating after they beat Perlis 5-1 in the final yesterday.
They dazzled and got down to a cracking right from the start and took a comfortable 3-0 lead at half-time.
The goals came from Wan Mohd Aliff (20th), Ashaari Shamsuddin (24th), Ismail Faruqi (44th) and a brace from Abdul Manaf Mamat (52nd penalty, 82nd) before Perlis scored a consolation goal through Azmizi Azmi in the 78th minute.
For Perlis, there was no fairy tale end in the campaign in the Under-23 competition.
They made it to the final for the first time since the inaugural Sukma in 1986 and finishing with the silver is a commendable effort.
Wan Mohd got the ball rolling for Terengganu when he latched on to a defence-splitting pass from midfielder Ahmad Nordin Alias to stab the ball past onrushing goalkeeper Khairul Azuan in the 20th minute.
Barely four minutes later, the home fans were on their feet again.
This time, top striker Ashaari pounced on a loose ball and whipped it into goal.
Just before the break, Terengganu won a free kick and Ismail Faruqi beat a six-man Perlis wall and Khairul with a curling shot.
Perlis’ hopes of a fight back in the second half were effectively snuffed out when defender Amzar Junaidi brought down Wan Mohd inside the box to concede a penalty. And Abdul Manaf stepped up to make the conversion.
The Northern Lions managed to pull a goal back when Azmizi scored off a neat one-two with Ridzuan Othman in the 78th minute.
Terengganu were already home and dry but Abdul Manaf sealed the rout of Perlis eight minutes from time.
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