KUALA NERUS – Terengganu FC (TFC) head coach Tomislav Steinbruckner blamed Muhammad Fusser Mad Sallih’s refereeing as the cause of his team’s 1-3 defeat to Johor Darul Ta’zim (JDT) in their Super League match at the Sultan Stadium. Mizan Zainal Abidin (SSMZA) here last night.
He said that many of the referee’s decisions were seen to be in favour of JDT which caused his men’s concentration to be affected and they ended up having to play with nine players in the second half after Argzim Redzovic and Ivan Mamut were shown red cards.
According to him, the referee should have been more sensitive to critical situations in order to make good and fair decisions for both teams.
“This is not only that penalty (that was awarded) and two red cards, but also faults in the middle when we had good situations, danger situations to the opponent’s goal and some fouls from behind…a few times he made some mistakes.
“What we can say is (the referee) he already decided who is going to be the winner. I am not saying this because we lost the match but he has his fingers in that,” he told reporters after the match.
However, Steinbruckner, who is more fondly called Tomi, said he was still satisfied with the performance of his men, especially in the first 50 minutes of the game.
Despite facing various pressures on the field, he said the Turtles captained by Habib Haroon still displayed high fighting spirit until the final whistle.
“Congrats to my guys because they played a good game. Also congrats to JDT because they keep winning all their matches,” he said.
JDT head coach Solari Andres said Terengganu were a tough opponent and the Turtles showed a lot of improvement compared to the first round meeting in the Super League earlier last year.
Meanwhile, around 1,000 TFC supporters gathered outside the main gate of SSMZA after the match to express their dissatisfaction with the referee.
However, no untoward incidents occurred due to tight control by police and other security personnel who had prepared in advance. – Bernama
