By wenjian
Finally, it all clicked on the night.
Boosted by a 7,000-strong home crowd who chose to forgo the Man United-Liverpool clash on television, the LionsXII cruised to a 3-1 win over Negeri Sembilan at the Jalan Besar Stadium.
But what really got the fans purring was the manner of victory. Neat team play, silky passes and nifty footwork, which had all been missing in the LionsXII's displays so far, all finally came together.
Much of the credit must go down to coach V Sundramoorthy's brave decision to field former Home United striker Sufian Anuar in place of the tried-and-tested Agu Casmir and boy, did he impress, creating two goals and generally wreaking havoc on the opposition defence.
The first half saw the Singapore side dominating play and coming close to scoring several times.
Surprise starter Sufian, who introduced a certain fluency to the LionsXII play, spurned several one-on-one chances against Negeri Sembilan's goalkeeper Farizal Marlias, which against stiffer opposition, perhaps, may have proved costly.
But the game's opening goal came in the 30th minute through a penalty awarded to LionsXII courtesy of a handball and captain Shahril Ishak coolly stroked home, his first of the night, to give the home side the lead.
The LionsXII continued to remain organized, compact in defence and aggressive in attack and it was not long before they went 2-0 up after Sufian's pass was polished off by Shahdan Sulaiman.
Negeri Sembilan found scoring chances few and far between with their strike duo of Jean-Emmanuel Effa and Ahmad Shakir well-marshalled by a cool and composed backline led by Baihakki.
The third goal of the night came in the form of a brilliant slide at the far post by skipper Shahril to slot home a low cross by the in-form Sufian.
To their credit, even at 3-0 down, the visitors continued to attack and finally had something to show for when Firdaus Azizul scored a consolation goal during a goalmouth melee.
After the match, coach Sundram was quick to praise former Home United striker Sufian Anuar: "I feel that I made the right decision to select Sufian in attack but this is a long season."
He added that Nigerian-born Agu Casmir, who made way for Sufian, need not despair.
"The entire team will have different times to contribute and on another night, Agu Casmir will play a vital role for the LionsXII."
His opposite number Mohd Azeaai Khor bin Abdullah also commented at the post-match press conference, "My players were not used to the pitch here and they did not have enough time get accustomed to it. However, I feel that we also had some players who looked tired and Ahmad Shakir who was with the Malaysian Olympic team was looking physically worn out as the match progressed. We had our chances in the game but were unable to capitalize on it."
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