Jordan Mintah celebrates his goal against Kelantan. - Photo by Kuching City FC
PETALING JAYA: Striker Jordan Mintah scored his first hattrick for Kuching City in the Super League to keep their hopes alive for a top five finish this season.
The Ghanaian, known for his Panther-crawl celebration, produced a masterclass performance as the Cats beat Kelantan 3-0 at the Sultan Mohd IV Stadium in Kota Baru on Wednesday to snap their three-game draw streak.
The 29-year-old scored all the goals in the third, sixth and 59th minutes to help the Borneo club get their sixth win of the season and stay fifth with 27 points from 19 matches.
The hattrick was his first of the season and with 11 goals in total from 17 matches, he is placed third in the Super League’s top scorer list behind Johor Darul Ta’zim’s Bergson Da Silva (23) and Kuala Lumpur’s Paulo Josue (13).
Mintah was all smiles.
“I want to thank God for my first hattrick this season. Goals always make you happy. I want to credit my teammates for their support,” said Mintah.
“I’ve scored 11 so far, but I want more, which means I have to work harder.”
Mintah scored his first goal through a header off a rebound from Kipre Tchetche and the third was also a header, off a cross from Tchetche.
The second was a cool finish when he received a pass from mercurial winger Ramadhan Saifullah and unleashed a right-footed finesse to beat goalkeeper Alfaiz Muhammad.
“Aidil (Sharin) is the best coach I’ve worked with so far. His communication on and off the field is good and he is like a father to all of us,” said Mintah, who has been playing in Malaysia since 2020.
Mintah hopes to continue the form when they face Malaysia Cup finalists Pahang at the Temerloh Stadium on March 4.
Kelantan remained at the bottom of the table with seven points from 20 matches and interim coach Reezal Zambery Yahya revealed that off-field issues had affected them.
The club are mired with financial issues with sources revealing players were owed more than four months’ salary and all their foreign players have left.
“I would like to thank the boys for coming down for this game. Kuching had five imports, we had none. We conceded two early goals, we showed that we didn’t settle down,” said the distraught Reezal.
“We never trained together since our game against Selangor in the Challenge Cup on Dec 22. The boys only came for games and did their part for the club.”
