Dooley has simple task for players... watch and learn

On target: Perak’s new signing, Farhan Roslan, scored their second goal against Pahang at the Darulmakmur Stadium.

PETALING JAYA: Do your homework, boys!

That’s what Pahang head coach Thomas Dooley is demanding from his charges as he seeks to stop the rot for the east coast giants after they slumped to their second straight Super League defeat.

They were beaten 2-0 by Perak at the Darulmakmur Stadium on Wednesday.

The Elephants, who went down 3-1 to Selangor in the opener last week, sit rock bottom of the 12-team standings and are the only two sides still without a point alongside UiTM.

“Obviously, we’re in a sticky situation. We had hoped for better results in the beginning of the season, ” lamented Dooley, who played for the United States at the 1994 World Cup.

Dooley insisted that while he was pleased with how his players fared on Wednesday, the team were left ruing two costly mistakes which led to J. Partiban and Farhan Roslan scoring in the 43rd and 59th minutes.

He also reckoned that his offensive department led by Pedro Henrique and Shahrul Aizad Zulkifli were a let down.

“I told the players that I’m very pleased with how they fought, stayed organised and created chances. We just lacked the finishing, ” said Dooley.

“We have a couple of difficult matches ahead and need to start getting the points. We just have to move forward and believe on the good things we did.

“We have a great team, it’s just those two to three mistakes that need to be eliminated.”

And in a bid to get his team back on track, Dooley, who won the 1991 Bundesliga title with Kaiserslautern, has demanded more efforts from his boys beyond the training ground.

Asked what he would do to fix the problem, Dooley said: “I’ll show them the problem by watching the matches on videos. That’s what I do all the time.

“As professionals, you don’t just turn up to train for an hour-and-half, go home and then meet again the next day.

“You have the responsibility to find out what you have done wrong, why things didn’t work out and what could have been done better. You only get that when you watch it.

“You will need to do it on your own at home watching those videos again so that next time you make a better decision. That’s how you learn.”

Meanwhile, Perak coach Chong Yee Fatt was pleased as punch to have led Perak to their first win of the season.

Expectations are high on Yee Fatt to fill the void left by Australian Mehmet Durakovic, who left last month.

“I’m very happy with the result, it’s a big three points for us especially when you played away, ” said Yee Fatt.

“We came here with a positive approach and we gave our best. Credits to the boys for their great performance which got us the result we wanted.”