LionsXII vs Johor MSL

Hariss Harun (in white) in action for LionsXII in their final home against Johor FC. Unfortunately for the home supporters, the LionsXII went down 0-1. (Photo by Jervis Mun/FAS. Used with permission.)

 

Jalan Besar Stadium, Saturday, July 14, 2012 — The Singapore LionsXII lost their final Malaysian Super League match 0-1 against Johor FC.

This defeat came on the heels of a 1-2 loss to T-Team in an away game.

Despite this, the LionsXII finished second in the league, 10 points behind winners Kelantan.

The LionsXII finished with 15 wins, five draws and six losses while Kelantan had a 18-6-2 win-draw-loss record to finish with 60 points.

The LionsXII scored 48 goals in 26 games, an average of 1.9 goals per game. Kelantan had the best scoring record, putting in 53 goals for a 2.0 goal per game average.

The LionsXII defence let in 23 goals, an average of 0.9 goals per game. Kelantan again had the best defensive record, conceding 18 goals for a 0.7 per game average.

Shahril Ishak and Shahdan Sulaiman finished as joint-top scorers for the team with nine goals each.

Selangor (12-7-7) were third in the league with 43 points while Perak (13-3-10) finished just one point behind in fourth.

Kuala Lumpur (0-5-21) were relegated while Sarawak (8-6-12), Kedah (7-7-12) and Sabah (7-7-12) go into a playoff with the runners-up in the Malaysian Premier League, the second division of Malaysian football.

The LionsXII registered the biggest win of the MSL when they thrashed Sabah 9-0, ironically in front of the lowest home crowd of 6,289 this season.

6,636 fans watched the final home game on Saturday.

While the LionsXII dominated the game, they could not score, hitting the woodwork a few times.

“It wasn’t really complacency. We created many chances but I think if you gave us 180 minutes tonight, we also won’t score,” said LionsXII head coach V.Sundramoorthy.

“The ball simply won’t go in for us today. On any other day, we would score three easily. We were just unfortunate today and luckily, it happened today, not in the Malaysia Cup, which is what we will now aim for,” added Sundram.

LionsXII 2012 — full results and MSL table