Sultan of Selangor's Cup: Doe brings the house down

Sultan of Selangor's Cup: Doe brings the house down

SELANGOR FA SELECTION 3
(Adam Griffith 41, Francis Forkey Doe 55, 74)

S-LEAGUE SELECTION 2
(Aleksandar Duric 6, Kamel Ramdani 70-pen)

It was a goal fit for royalty. Selangor's Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah, the host, felt compelled to applaud Francis Forkey Doe, after his stunning winner here last night.

The goal, the Liberian striker's second of the night for a Selangor FA Selection sunk the S-League Selection and gave the Malaysian state side their sixth win in the 12 years of the Sultan of Selangor's Cup.

What a beauty it was. Charging towards goal and with the visiting defenders backing off, Doe sent a curler from all of 25 metres which dipped beautifully beyond the reach of Hassan Sunny.

The strike sent the 70,000 fans at the Shah Alam Stadium wild.

The Singapore side had done well to draw level after going behind despite scoring first.

Tampines Rovers forward Aleksandar Duric - as he did last year when another SLeague Selection side lost 3-1 here - found the net early on, poking home from closerange inside six minutes after the Selangor defence failed to clear Shaiful Esah's low cross.

Stung, Selangor stormed forward for the equaliser. But they found Warriors FC goalkeeper Hassan in top form.

The national shot-stopper denied Doe, K Gurusamy and Selangor talisman Amri Yahyah with fine saves.

The Red Giants, though, got their first goal of the night four minutes before the break when Australian defender Adam Griffith stole a header at the back post to restore parity.

The visitors fell behind 10 minutes after the restart when Doe reacted quickest in the penalty box to rifle home a low shot past Hassan.

But the Singapore side got back on level terms in the 70th minute, when Tanjong Pagar's Kamel Ramdani was hacked down by Fitri Shazwan in the penalty box.

The French-Algerian playmaker dusted himself off and coolly sent his spotkick beyond the Selangor goalkeeper's reach.

Just four minutes later, however, Doe stole the spotlight with moment of brilliance.

S-League Selection coach Patrick Vallee, who guides Tanjong Pagar, said: "Once again, I would like to thank the Football Association of Singapore for giving me this great honour of coaching a team for this prestigious Cup.

"Tonight, we saw a match between two teams that really wanted to win, and both played attractive football.

"But we had a very short time to prepare for this game, and I'm pleased with how we performed.

"The players gave their all and fought very hard for Singapore. I'm proud of them."

msazali@sph.com.sg


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