In the aftermath of the City Boys’ 0-3 loss to Johor DT on Wednesday night at home, that also saw the end of our unbeaten record in the Kuala Lumpur Football Stadium, since September 2019 lasting for 23 matches, head coach Bojan agreed with opinions, that the incident leading to Kenny being sent-off in the 57th minute as the most crucial moment that killed the game for us
The City Boys were in the ascendancy after the break, in the hunt for the equaliser, coming close to scoring just a couple of minutes following the restart, but Kenny’s sacking made in the task a lot harder, tilting the balance of the game in favour of the opponents.
Speaking to members of the media during the mandatory press conference following the match, Bojan refused to be drawn into any kind of controversy about the referee’s performance except saying that we will use official channels to raise our official opinions about him.
“The red card was the crucial moment of the game. But there was some 7 or 8 yellows. I think that the red card killed the game (for us).”
Continuing he delved into his thoughts when pressed by the members of the audience, “I cannot share (any) comment because I need to talk about the ref. If I don’t talk about ref, then there is nothing to talk. And I cannot talk about ref because I’ll be fined. (Video) Clips will be sent to FAM and we will tell what we feel about the referee. We will see what they will do. I cannot comment anything else. If I tell you my opinion, again they will fine me. So I cannot talk about it. Later I’ll tell you, but now I cannot. Publicly I cannot. This one you need to ask somebody else, not me.”
The 50 year old also explained that Kenny too was tongue tied and will not issue any kind of allegations discrediting the referee though it was clear for all in the stadium, on television, on the internet, to see what transpired in that incident.
“I asked him to go out because this is what professional players should do, but must be that he was really upset, so maybe..and he also can’t give statements about the referee, we cannot talk about this.”
Bojan also regretted the manner in which the proud record the City Boys had for so long at the Kuala Lumpur Football Stadium came to an end.
“The long unbeaten record was fantastic, I don’t think it should have been finished this way. Now three nil looks really bad. ohhh they killed us (it seemed). It was never like that.”, he said.
Praising the boys for their effort on the pitch today, the Croatian recognised the progress that has been made compared to the Charity Shield defeat to the same opponents despite the same result.
“Actually there was only 1 mistake that we did, and except this, it was (a) very 50/50 match, much better than in Johore. It was much different and you can say that it was much better. We are fit now, we have much less injuries, still we have 2, 3 injured players. So I cannot say anything to my boys because I think that they did a good job today. Hadin (substituted at halftime) also played well. I really cannot complain about any player today. I can complain only about somebody else”.
On the Declan’s error that led to Johor DT’s fortunate lead, Bojan was quick to point out the positives rather than harp on the incident.
“Declan did a wrong judgment he didn’t see the man behind him, but except this, he had a really really good game. He is coming back slowly, and I think we got a really good player.”
Bojan was also asked to explain the rationale of not fielding Romel from the beginning.
“Romel is not fit. If he is fit for 90 minutes, he will play. He played 45 minutes, it’s okay, this is his first match. He can do much much better.”
Bojan also credited the management team of the City Boys for the improvements that he noticed, though he lamented the fact that we are still without a proper training ground and the heavy use of the stadium pitch on almost a daily basis has affected it’s playability.
“The guys are very happy that the management is doing their job. So I think that this is one part that is getting better. (But) still we don’t have a training ground, we train at the stadium. The stadium is quite bad because everyday somebody (is) playing here. So the field is quite bad and you can see that there are lots of difficulties. Johor also could not play. This is one of the problems.”
He ended the press conference looking forward to the next match against Melaka U on Saturday, and assured the faithful ones that once all his players return from their issues, we will turn the corner and overcome this difficult period.
“Melaka in 3 days time (Saturday). They have 1 day extra to recover. I don’t know why but this is how they (organisers) put the fixtures. We need now to recover and focus on that game. I hope they (the injured players) recover. With players, slowly we’re getting better. Once we have all of them, (it will be the) same like last year”.
To read the match report of KL City vs Johor DT on 6/4/2022 (Super League), please click kualalumpurfootball.com/…/unbeaten-home-record-broken-city-boys-see-red-in-loss-to-johor-dt
To watch the highlights of KL City vs Johor DT on 6/4/2022 (Super League), please click youtu.be/ercLA8Q5rlM
To watch the complete match of KL City vs Johor DT on 6/4/2022 (Super League), please click youtu.be/l6z5hOus-_o