| Perlis caught the blues in the rain
22 March 2006
Uploaded: 11:30 AM
Phillimon Chepita (yellow) scored a hat trick against New Radiant
Photo: Chin Cheng Yeang/theStar
Male', MALDIVES - New Radiant's hope of reaching the quarter finals of this years AFC Cup came to a critical point when they lost their encounter with Perlis to 6-0, a score none of their fans believed before the match.
New Radiant chairman Ali Azim previously stated the rain that experienced his players in their last practice session and the same happened last night as well. New Radiant left miserable in the heavy rain, thunder and lightning whereas the Perlis players created chances one after the other and put the visitors in great pressure.
New Radiant was quite lucky in the early minutes of the game when
Zacharia Simukonda blasted a penalty off the target. The penalty was awarded when their star player Chepita (pic) was bundled to the ground inside penalty area.
Maldives player of the year, Ibrahim Fazeel, blown away one of the best chances of the game in the 12th minute. A weak back pass from Nazaruddin Zain, caught by Fazeel and struck wide off the target after beating the keeper.
Perlis missed an opportunity in the 21st minute, a powerful header from Chepita beat Sadhun but for their horror not the cross bar.
Manzoor Azwira took the home team infront at the stroke of half time when his downward header bounced over Sadhun and into the net.
Perlis started the second half with the same pace they ended the first half and New Radiant were forced to face dangerous attacks of Perlis strikers, specially Chepita.
Inside first minute of second half, Chepita scored Perlis' second goal from a curling effort outside the penalty area.
Two minutes later Chepita scored again, but this time from a perfectly timed header received from a cross by Nazaruddin.
Six minutes later Simukonda overcame the sadness of his early penalty miss
with a blistering drive which squirmed past Sandun's despairing dive. He scored again in the 65th minute in the same fashion.
Chepita became the hero of the rainy night when he scored in the 76th minute to bag his second hat trick in AFC Cup. He scored three against Home United in Singapore in their 3-2 win.
Sadun was send off in the 89th minute for handling the ball outside the penalty area. New Radiant who were out of substitutes left no choice than bringing an outfield player into the goal, defender Firaz (Malla) took the gloves for the rest of the game.
“New Radiant offered a lot of resistance in the first half and this is reflected by the scoreline,” quoted in AFC site as said by Perlis coach Abdul Rahman Ibrahim.
“But we put pressure on the midfield after the restart and this led to the goalfest.”
New Radiant was already checked out from the hotel they were staying when we contacted the hotel this morning. New Radiant will arrive Maldives tonight.
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