By HENRY MORABANG
TUGUBA Laitepo Morobe Kumuls are still recovering from the shock loss by going down to under-rated Besta Madang Fighters 4-0 at Laiwaden Oval in Madang on Saturday.
Coach Max Foster when contacted yesterday only said; “We’ve lost. That is the name of the game,”
Foster confirmed the score—line stating that they are trying to come to terms with the loss, and it was very hard to explain how his team not only lost, but lost badly.
He commended Madang Fighters for putting up a good fight by scoring two goals in the opening half and completed the match with another two in the final half to wrap up the match.
The former PNG goalkeeper said the Madang team needs to be congratulated for putting up a good display in particularly the two new strikers Joel Keimelo and the new kid on the block Pupulang Boiro.
Foster said Boiro was particularly devastating where he scored three goals while Keimelo collected one o wrapped up the game for the Madang team.
He said Boiro’s performance reminded him of Daino Sami in their days.
Asked if any threats or player intimidation played any part on their loss, Foster said that the Madang crowd had completely changed – gone quiet and behaved - in fear of losing their home matches to other centres.
“The crowd behaviour was good with supporters just supporting their teams in a proper manner – thanks to the NSL Board warning last week,” he said.
Foster said his team is now faced with a dilemma with shortage of players as six Morobe players have been included in the Under 23 team while another four key players in Sowera Guti, Clement Peka, Richard Daniel and Ken Gule – are all injured.
Striker Raymond Gunemba was carrying a minor injury but was rested in preparation for the Under 23 final camp.
The Under 23 team will be away for three weeks, Foster said, adding that he will have too look for new players to replace them. Unfortunately, Kumuls did not use the second window transfer to sign new players.
“We (Morobe Kumuls) thought that PNG will pick one or two players but to our surprise they selected six players which formed the nucleus of the Morobe Kumuls team,” he said.