Both head coaches from Sabah and Perak were left wondering whether their respective side should have taken more from this 2-2 draw at Likas Stadium.
On the same match day where Johor Darul Ta'zim unexpectedly dropped points, Perak could not take advantage to reduce the gap to the league leaders as they also drew their match, 2-2 against Sabah where the Bos Gaurus were forced to come back twice in the match.
The point earned on the road, their third away game in four matches meant that it is status quo at the top of the Super League standings with Perak on eight points, two behind JDT. Mehmet Durakovic's side fell behind twice in the match but recovered sufficiently thanks to a brace from a red-hot Shahrel Fikri.
"It was not easy, they had one more day's rest and they are playing at home. We make two mistakes and that cost us two goals. We were very good in the second half. Maybe we could have got a penalty or two. One point is one point, that's a very good result but maybe we could have gotten three.
"We were a bit tired in the first half. The travelling that we've done, we've had three games away and we haven't really had a good rest back home. But this is the schedule and we don't want to complain, we are professional. We go back in Ipoh now, have a good break," said Durakovic after the match.
Having only recently picked up their first Super League win at home this season against Felda, Sabah could not repeat the effort against the 2018 Malaysia Cup champions but not for the lack of trying. Azzizan Nordin's free kick was misjudged by Nasrullah Aziz in Perak's goal to give the home side an early lead in the match.
Even after Perak equalised the first time, Sabah continued to look threatening and eventually reclaimed their lead in the match when Guy Gnabouyou snucked inside of Antony Golec to flick in the second in the 27th minute. Kurniawan Dwi Yulianto will be looking to ensure that his team learn from this as he felt they could have hung on better.
"We are of course disappointed by the result. We conceded the second goal because of miscommunication, maybe they thought it was offside. But that is football, sometimes the things we have in front of us is in the end taken away. What we need to improve is that we have to be fully concentrated for the whole 90 minutes otherwise we will be caught out.
"We will use the break to improve the team, improve the conditions as well as the conditions of the team," said Kurniawan after the match.
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Kurniawan and Durakovic rued missed opportunities to take full points
Kurniawan and Durakovic rued missed opportunities to take full points
