MHL : Sapura claim second spot, champs E&Y suffer first loss

Sapura chalked up an impressive 5-0 win over the National Juniors at the Kuala Lumpur Hockey Stadium to finish as the Malaysia Hockey League (MHL) Division One runners-up yesterday.

Sapura completed their fixtures with 18 points from 10 matches.



Defending overall champions Tenaga Nasional, meanwhile, ended the unbeaten run of champions Ernst and Young when they came back from a goal down to win 2-1 at the National Hockey Stadium in Bukit Jalil.

Tenaga finished in third spot in the six-team competition with 16 points.

Sapura, powered by two former South Korean internationals, went on the offensive right from the start and led the Juniors 3-0 at half time.

Jiwa Mohan gave Sapura the lead off a penalty corner in the fifth minute. Sapura score two more penalty corner goals in the space of three minutes through S. Kuhan (26th) and Maninderjit Singh (29th).

The other two goals were scored by Koreans Kim Jung-chul (39th) and Song Seung-tae (54th).

Sapura coach K. Embaraj said that they were happy to take the runners-up spot.

“We have to iron out a few areas over the next two week in our preparation for the knockout stage of the competition, beginning on Dec 5. We need to work on our fitness and also on the forwardline,’’ he said.

Chua Boon Huat gave Ernst and Young the lead in the 14th minute but Tenaga came alive in the last 19 minutes to score two goals through Mohd Amin Rahim (51st) and Fazreen Eksan Kulup (59th).

Nur Insafi, meanwhile, chalked up their first win — beating former champions Maybank 5-2 at the USM Stadium in Penang.