PETALING JAYA, July 7 — Melaka head coach Zainal Abidin Hassan described the 2-1 victory over Petaling Jaya City FC (PJ City FC) in the Super League match last night as crucial to improve the position of the Hang Tuah squad in the league table.

In the match at the Petaling Jaya City Council Stadium, PJ City FC led with a goal by Pedro Henrique in the 12th minute, before Melaka bounced back with two goals through Luka Milunovic in the 36th minute and Jang Suk-Won in the 45th minute.

"Congratulations to the players for winning full three points and climbing from seventh to the fourth place.

"Despite lagging with 0-1, they have shown a disciplined game by scoring two goals,” he told a news conference after the match.

Commenting further, Zainal Abidin admitted the home team put pressure on them in the second half of the match to equalise, but the Melaka defence was able to absorb the pressure to win the valuable game.

Melaka is in the fourth place with 29 points, while PJ City FC is at the ninth spot with 20 points from 19 matches to date. — Bernama