Hodak disgruntled with referee after 2-1 away defeat

PETALING JAYA: Johor Darul Ta’zim (JDT) coach Bojan Hodak was incensed with referee Suhaizi Sukri’s performance after his side went down 2-1 to lowly Armed Forces in the Super League.

Midfielders Bruno Martelotto and Mohd Affize Faizal scored in the 40th and 59th minutes to steer Forces to victory at the Selayang Stadium in Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday. Mohd Asraruddin Putra Omar scored JDT’s consolation goal in the 84th.

Both teams ended the match with 10 men after Suhaizi sent off Forces’ Mohd Azrul Ahmad in the 85th minute and JDT skipper Mohd Aidil Zafuan Abdul Razak in the 90th.

Despite the defeat, JDT still lead with 38 points with Selangor trailing by a point with two matches remaining.

However, the Southern Tigers face a daunting task in the title run-in without influential Aidil Zafuan for the penultimate match against bitter rivals Kelantan at the Larkin Stadium in Johor Baru on Friday.

Croatian Hodak slammed Suhaizi’s performance, but kept his criticism cryptic to avoid repercussions from the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM). 

“I will not comment about the referee. I will check the video of the match and send it to FAM ... Frankly, I’m unhappy with the referee,” said the 43-year-old coach.

“We will send the video to FAM but I don’t know how it will help us. They were definitely more than one error from the referee during the match. If I tell you that (the errors), it will be very expensive for me .... so I don’t want to get into trouble,” added Hodak.

Hodak was glad that Kelantan, his former team, did JDT a favour by beating title rivals Selangor 2-0 at the Sultan Mohd IV Stadium in Kota Baru.

“We are still top of the table. If we had won it would have been better. We have two tough matches and we need to win both. Our fate is still in our hands,” said Hodak.