Negeri Sembilan opened its 2012 M-League campaign in style by beating Kelantan 2-1 to win the Charity Shield (Sultan Ahmad Shah Cup) at the National Stadium in Bukit Jalil here Saturday night.
Kelantan, the Super League champion last season and winner of the Charity Shield last season after beating Selangor 2-0, failed in its bid to make it two consecutive Charity Shield wins.
However, it was Kelantan who drew first blood when last season's Most Valuable Player (MVP) Norshahrul Idlan Talaha put his team in front in the 20th minute after fine work by their Lebanese import Mohd Ghaddar.
Negeri Sembilan, the defending Malaysia Cup champion who had incidentally beaten Kelantan to lift the trophy however, refused to let the goal affect their play after its efforts to equalise before the break was futile.
Cameroon striker Jean Emmanuel Effa Owona, the only foreign player in the Negeri side who had a shaky start and missed a few early chances including a goal bound header that was cleared of the goal line, came alive 10 minutes later to strike the equaliser.
Jean Emmanuel who was clearly a menace in the Kelantan defence, repaid a huge chunk of the money invested by Negeri Sembilan to sign him, by rising head and shoulders above the rest to nod in Negeri's second goal in the 63rd minute which eventually turned out to be the winner.
The second goal especially was a well worked effort by the Negeri side when hardworking S. Kunalan played a short pass to Tengku Qayyum Ubaidillah's who made a pin-point cross to the Cameroon striker to beat Khairul Fahmi Che Mat in goal.
Tengku Mahkota Kelantan Tengku Muhammad Faiz Petra later presented the prizes to the winners while Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) Deputy President Tan Sri Annuar Musa who is also the Kelantan FA President and Negeri Sembilan Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Mohamad Hasan were in attendance.
KELANTAN:
Khairul Fahmi Che Mat, Azizi Matt Rose, S. Subramaniam (Nik Shahrul Azim Halim), Mohd Farisham Ismail, Mohd Aziz Ismail, Mohd Shakir Shaari, Norfarhan Mohamad, Indra Putra Mahayuddin, Norshahrul Idlan Talaha, Antwi Dennis Agyare (Mohd Badhri Mohd Radzi), Muhamad Ghaddar.
N. SEMBILAN:
Farizal Marlias, Tengku Qayyum Ubaidillah (Mohd Nazrin Mohd Nawi), Norhafiz Zamani Misbah, Rashid Mamud, Muzaki Abu Bakar, Abdul Halim Zainal, G. Mahathevan, Shahurain Abu Samah, S. Kunanlan, Ahmad Shakir Md Ali (Mohd Firdaus Azizul), Jean Emmanuel Effa Owona.
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