ALOR STAR: It was supposed to be a breeze for fourth-placed Kedah when they welcomed 11th placed Police at Darulaman Stadium in a Super League match on Saturday, but the opposite happened.
Kedah not only lost their perfect start to the season, having won their initial two games against Perak and Terengganu, but also lost the services of two key players in Manuel Ott and Nafuzi Zain for at least the next match.
Given that referee Azizan Ariffin flashed a direct red card to Ott for putting his hand on Fadi Awad's face and to Nafuzi for his aggressive action on fourth official Halim Ramlan, there might be further repercussions for the duo.
The match was largely controlled by Kedah who produced most of the threatening moments, but were thwarted by the heroics of Ramadhan Hamid in Police's goal. Things became even more comfortable for the Cops after Ott's sending-off in the 60th minute.
But it seemed that the removal of Nafuzi from the sidelines 10 minutes later had a bigger impact on the game as players on the pitch lost their cool.
Police took full advantage to score the only goal in the game through Bruno Suzuki in the 75th minute.
Standing in for Nafuzi in the post-match press conference, assistant coach Victor Andrag refused to comment on the two red cards, but felt that the outcome might have been different had his players been able to handle their emotions better.
"Yes, we didn't play how we planned. Actually in the game, if someone was sent off, for sure it will have an impact. All the more when it involved our key player and also our head coach," said Victor.
"Our players couldn't control their emotions because of some incidents, hopefully this can be a lesson moving forward."
As for Police, in producing the very first major shock of the new season, the result will prove to be massively motivating for The Cops as it pushed them six spots up the table to sixth.
Thie clash in Alor Star required Azzmi Aziz's Police side to be disciplined in facing stronger opponents who were in good form and his boys played the perfect game to continually frustrate the home team with centre back James Okwuosa in inspiring form.
"Our first three points and also our first goal, so obviously we are delighted," enthused Azzmi after the game.
"We know that Kedah are strong at home and comfortable on the ball. Our strategy was to play on the counter but they were stable and not easy to penetrate.
"First 45 minutes, we were happy to be level. Then when we resumed, that incident (Ott red card) happened and that is football. We continued to work hard and we found the goal we wanted.
"I don't care whether it's luck or not, we just want to enjoy the three points. This continues the momentum that we have built from previous matches, hopefully a good sign going forward."