'Elephants' still shaky despite winning over Melaka United - Dollah

Pahang head coach Dollah Salleh may heave a sigh of relief after the Elephants advancing to the quarter-finals of the 2017 FA Cup following a 2-0 win over Melaka United last night.

However, he admitted that there were still room for improvement for the squad after his players were a bit shaky at the match in the Darul Makmur Stadium here, compared to several matches before this.

"I'm grateful because we're going to the quarter-finals and the results was satisfactory. It's just that Pahang have displayed a different kind of play, especially in the second half... This has given the Melaka United the opportunities to attack.

"Luckily, they failed to score any goal... On the other hand, we managed to rise only in the last 10 minutes," Dollah told reporters after the match.

The two-time champions beat the Melaka United through penalty kicks provided by South Korean Heo Jaewon in the 15th minute and Mohd Nor Azam Abdul Azih in the 86th.

Dollah said he did not have any concern over which team the Elephants squad would play against in the quarter-finals because what mattered to him was the performance of his players.

"We need to rise again to show our real performance and to maintain that. We're able to give a good fight if that happens," he said.

Meanwhile, Melaka United manager Eric Williams said he was pretty disappointed with the defeat.

"We did several attempts especially in the second half but failed to seize the opportunities. We've done the best but eventually the victory favoured Pahang," he said. -- Bernama