Unbeaten T-Team flying high after three matches

For T-Team coach Yunus Alif, the best defence is offence. Without losing a game or conceding a single goal, his team sit atop the Super League table with seven points from three matches.

T-Team beat Kedah 3-0 at home on the opening day, won over Kuala Lumpur away with a similar scoreline in their second match and secured a 0-0  draw with Sabah in Kuala Terengganu on Tuesday.

"The big wins over Kedah and Kuala Lumpur did not tell the whole story as we were never on all-attacking mode. Three of the goals came from our playmaker Zairo (Anuar Zailani)," said Yunus.

"Unlike Kelantan or Terengganu, we do not play a fast attacking game because we know our limitations when going forward especially when striker (Zachariah) Simukonda has not been all that effective." 

The coach said time is running out for the 28-year-old Zambian to prove that he is worthy of a place in the team.

"We had high hopes for him but thus far, the only time he had produced a decent performance was in the second half of the Kuala Lumpur game," said the coach.

"But to be fair to him, I will still include him in the match against Terengganu on Saturday (tomorrow) but his days will be numbered if he does not show any improvement in that game."

Yunus is, however, delighted with the performance of T-Team's other foreign signing Bojan Petric from Bosnia and Herzegovina.

"He is part of the reason we have not conceded a single goal yet and though he does not speak English or Malay,   he does not seem to have any problem communicating on the field with goalkeeper Iqbal (Suhimi) and  defenders Norfazly (Alias), Hasbullah (Awang) and Shahril (Faizal).

"Iqbal is another player who has been outstanding, keeping a clean sheet for over 270 minutes now and all our supporters are rooting for him to keep it going."

However, Yunus said  luck was on the side of T-Team in the match against Sabah as in the 75th minute,  Bobby Gonzales missed a certain goal. 

"We were exposed for a while late in the match especially during the drizzle but our defenders were composed enough to handle threats from Gonzales, (Michael) Baird and (Brendan) Gan," said Yunus.

Meanwhile, Sabah coach Justin Ganai said it was difficult to play a smooth passing game on a slippery pitch after rain fell just before the match.

"It rained again in the second half but we had our best spell during the drizzle and if luck was on our side, we could have left Kuala Terengganu with three points," said Justin.

"Then again, our initial target was not to lose to the league leaders and we are happy to go home with a  share of the spoils."