PETALING JAYA, June 28 — Police hitman Dramane Traore put a marker of achieving over 30 goals this season after his brace earned the Cops a vital 2-1 victory over LionsXII and fired them back within Super League football title contention.

“I’m happy to score two goals today, but I need more goals. I want to score more than 30 goals this season. The most important thing is we won after losing the last two games,” said the Mali marksman, who now leads the goalscoring charts with 11 goals in the league.

Traore’s heroics made the difference for Police, who came into the match after two successive losses against leaders Pahang.

They faced an in-form LionsXII, who were high on confidence after winning the FA Cup last month and battling to an invaluable goalless draw against Japan in the 2018 World Cup qualifiers, which featured eight players from this team.

Traore, who gave Police the lead through a ninth minute penalty added a second goal 20 minutes later with a flying header just a minute after the Singapore outfit equalised through Safuwan Baharudin’s header in the 28th minute.

The victory was certainly a huge morale boost for Azman Adnan, who hailed his men’s fighting spirit.

“The players did well to bounce back after the two losses. You could see they were tired, especially in the second half but did extremely well to hang on and claim the win. They were focused till the end, unlike the last game where we conceded deep into injury time against Pahang,” said Azman, who praised the Traore’s contribution.

“He has been excellent since signing for us and I am sure he can achieve his personal target for this season if he continues to work hard.”

LionsXII coach Fandi Ahmad, who saw his side dominate the second half, lamented the sharpness in front of goal.

“We were unlucky, but I can’t fault the players who gave their everything. We dominated the second half and had 12 corners, but their goalkeeper (Badrulzaman Abdul Halim) was in top form and did well to thwart us.

“But we will regroup and return stronger for our next fixture,” said the former Singapore national player.