Words: Jason Hall, SWQ Thunder
Image: Helen Kiepe

Harimau Muda ‘A’ showed their class on Saturday defeating South West Queensland Thunder 5-0 on a cold night at Clive Berghofer Stadium in Toowoomba.

Ghazzi and Mat Wasir collected a brace of goals each while Devandran rounded out the scoring for the Malaysian team.

Harimau Muda 'A' started the game at lightning pace and after just nine minutes a well weighted through ball saw striker Ghazzi run onto the ball and neatly finish past the advancing Thunder goalkeeper Jace Hudson.

Hudson was forced to make a number of diving saves over the next 15 minutes but couldn't stop a rocket from midfielder Devandran and only parried the ball into the top left corner of the goal.

Just three minutes later classy striker Mat Wasir played a neat wall pass with his midfield which put him through the Thunder defensive line. A clean strike then saw the ball hit the back of the net for a 3-0 lead after just 27 minutes.

It didn't take long for Mat Wasir to secure his brace when on the half hour mark his left back overlapped and cut the ball back across the face of goal for him to side foot into the roof of the net.

The Thunder seemed to put the 4-0 half time score behind them when they came out after the break and created a number of scoring opportunities.

The only goal in the second half however came when Ghazzi picked up his second in the 61st minute with an amazing finish. A long ball played through to the striker, who chested it forward, seemed to have too much weight on it but the quick striker cut it back into the goal from the byline.

The 5-0 win saw Harimau Muda 'A' move to eigth on the ladder while the hapless Thunder are still searching for their first win of the season and remain bottm of the standings.

SWQ Thunder 0
Harimau Muda 'A' 5 (Ghazzi 9' 61', Devandran 24', Mat Wasir 27' 30')