Given how cutthroat the coaching scene can be in South East Asia, where trigger-happy club owners take a loss personally and a string of defeats as a severe loss of face, Jamie McAllister can feel fortunate as November turned to December and he was still in a job in Brunei. Two points from the opening eight games is sackable anywhere in the world but DPMM stuck with their Scottish coach and they're now feeling the benefits.
There were some shocking defeats along the way, including back-to-back heavy reverses at home to Terengganu (0-5) and KL City (0-4). There was also the small matter of a 10-0 spanking away to JDT.
That humiliation seems to have led to some soul-searching within the football club. While the fans may have stayed away, two penalties from Australian striker Jordan Murray helped DPMM come from behind twice at home to Negeri Sembilan to help the team lift their 3rd point of the season.
A narrow 1-0 loss away to high-flying Kuching City showed progress had been made. Earlier in the season, they had lost 9-4 on aggregate to their Sarawakian neighbours in the FA Cup.
New signing Hakeme Yazid Said made an immediate impact scoring twice as DPMM defeated newly promoted Immigration 4-2. In another Borneo Derby, DPMM headed east and beat Sabah 3-1 with Indonesian Sananta getting on the scoresheet.
Murray was back on the scoresheet in a what was now at least a routine 2-0 win over Penang before both Hakeme and Murray scored three between them to beat PDRM. The fans were believing again. Just 1,500 had witnessed the Immigration game, admittedly not the most attractive opposition, but when the Malaysian police turned up at Hassanal Bolkiah National Stadium, more than 4,000 fans turned up.
Today sees Selangor in town with a bigger crowd promised as the Scottish coach McAllister hopes to lead his team to a fifth win on the bounce. In his playing career, McAllister lined up for Exeter City and one of his teammates at the time was a young Ollie Watkins. The soppy old football romantic in me wonders whether during those dark days at the start of the season when points were scarcer than beers in Brunei, the coach rang the English striker to see if he was interested in a move to the Far East!
I guess with Hakeme and Jordan happily sharing the goals, there'll be no need for Ollie to turn his back on the Premier League. For the time being at least!
# posted by Me @ 2:58 AM
