KUALA LUMPUR: Kedah Darul Aman (KDA) FC suffered a triple blow in their Super League home match against PDRM FC at the Darul Aman Stadium in Alor Setar.
First, they had skipper Manuel Ott sent off by referee Mohd Azizan Saat Ariffin in the 60th minute. Down to 10 men, they suffered another body blow when head coach Mohd Nafuzi Mohd Zain was shown the red card for putting the fourth match official in a headlock by the side of the field when play was stopped in the 70th minute.
Four minutes later, things got even worse when Bruno Suzuki netted the only goal of the match for PDRM FC to hand the Canaries their first defeat of the season after back-to-back wins over Perak and Terengganu.
The first half was evenly matched, with both teams going on the offensive, although KDA FC looked more menacing thanks to the solid support of the home crowd but PDRM goalkeeper Mohamad Ramdhan Ab Hamid rose to the occasion to keep them at bay.
With an hour gone, KDA FC suffered their first setback when Manuel Ott was given the marching orders for pushing the head of PDRM midfielder Fadi Mahmoud Awad Saleh.
Coach Mohd Nafuzi immediately made four changes, bringing on Mohd Fadzrul Danel Mohd Nizam, Manuel Hidalgo, Mohamad Heshamudin Ahmad and Mohammad Fayadh Mohd Zulkifli Amin in a bid to mix things up.
But, 10 minutes later, came coach Mohd Nafuzi’s moment of madness.
KDA FC were now ripe for the taking and PDRM FC did just that, with Bruno Suzuki scoring the all-important goal for the 1-0 win.
The win, the first for coach Azzmi Aziz’s PDRM FC outfit, sees them move up to sixth place in the standings with four points from three matches while Kedah remained fourth with six points.
In another Super League match earlier this evening, winless Perak managed to hold hosts Kelantan United to a 0-0 draw at the Sultan Muhammad IV Stadium in Kota Bharu. – Bernama