Another lucky cup draw saw Trebor Mahtal lead semi-professional Longford Town to their third Irish Cup success in 2028. That meant he ticked the letter L off his Alphabet Challenge, which he was no one-thirteenth of the way through.
Mahtal allowed his Longford contract to expire then, on 1 December 2028, he resigned. Mahtal goes in search of his third club with a 2-star reputation and slightly improved attributes having only completed two coaching badges.
There weren’t too many options available upon Mahtal’s resignation, but he did apply for jobs in Canada and Slovakia. The role he was most keen on was Penarol, who offered an interview but opted to go with a young Uruguayan manager. It took a month for any other opportunities to pop up, as Malaysian side Perak offer Mahtal an interview. He’d never heard of this club before but, in what’s probably considered a backwards step, he accepted a very different new challenge.
Who Are Kelab Bola Sepak Perak?
Perak FC, also known as Kelab Bola Sepak Perak, is a professional football club located in Ipoh, the capital city of the Malaysian state of Perak, in northwestern Malaysia, around 120 miles north of Kuala Lumpur. Perak, nicknamed Seladang (Malay for Gaur, a large Asian cow) or Bos Gaurus, was founded in 1921 but wasn’t officially registered until 30 years later, when the state FA, the Perak Amateur Football Association, took control of the club. It was acquired by private broker firm IMC in November 2021 then telecoms firm XOX in January 2022, which sounds a little bit shady.
Perak has won eight Malaysian Cups, making it the third-most successful in the competition, including the inaugural FA Cup in 1990. The club has two league titles, in 2002 and 2003, since the Malaysian league was founded in 1982, but has yet to win the Super League, which began in 2004, finishing 2nd in 2007 and 2018. However, Perak suffered its first relegation in 2021 but gained an immediate promotion. In-game, Perak was very much mid-table fodder for five seasons before suffering relegation in 2028, winning just seven times and scoring 23 in 26 games.
Perak plays at the 42,500-capacity Stadium Perak, has solid 14 youth recruitment but 8 junior coaching, 6 training facilities and 3 youth facilities. The main reason Mahtal took the job was because the board agreed to fund his next coaching course in the interview which, in addition to making the step up to a professional club, felt like a worthwhile next step. That said, the club didn’t have the best finances, sitting £30k in the red with an £8k transfer budget and £6,700 weekly wage budget, of which £1k was spare.
Upon reviewing the players available to him, Mahtal was pleasantly surprised to see 12 first-team players with 5-star potential and two more with 4.5-star potential. The three youth sides had an additional six players with 5-star potential and four with 4.5-star potential. However, several players wanted out due to the recent relegation and had active clauses in their contracts and Mahtal moved on a couple for minimal profit.
The best player remaining at the club were attacking midfielders Muhd Izzudin Ismail, who plans to leave on a free at the end of the season, and Redzuan Naim, who had an active £20k release clause that was met by Sabah in June and he returned on loan for the remainder of the season. Other key players include left back Muhd Hairiey Haim Mamat, striker Muhd Jafri Muhd Firdaus Chew – Chewy to his mates, 17-year-old midfielder Danial Aziz, centre back Mohd Faiz Hashim, holding midfielder/centre back Saiful Shamsuddin, full back Che Mohd Suhairi Che Halim and attacker Zulkifli (Zulki) Hashim.
For the first time in his career, Mahtal adopted a positive approach. He initially built a 4-2-3-1, but was leaning more towards a 4-2-4 as it allowed him to play Zulki alongside Chewy.
Getting Started In Malaysia
Perak are massive favourites to win the 14-team MBSB Bank Championship, with the bookies giving them 1/91 odds ahead of Harini (18/1), Melaka and Bukit Tambun (20/1) and Kelantan (25/1). If you’re new to Malaysian football, teams in the second tier are allowed exactly zero foreign players, so Mahtal is very much restricted to getting the best out of the local talent. However, two teams gain automatic promotion and teams in the top tier CIMB Malaysia Super League are allowed six foreigners.
Mahtal’s time in Malaysia began in early March 2029 by hosting Melaka, who obviously scored their first shot. But Ismail’s low drive levelled things up before Chewy’s low cross was turned in by Zulki. Ismail struck again just before halftime and teed up Naim for a fourth before being rested, and apparent set-piece expert Shamsuddin wrapped up a 5-1 victory with a late freekick. Perak took confidence from that performance and put seven past Kuching led by two more Ismail goals, then won 4-2 and 3-1 at Armed Forces (which was dicing with death) and UiTM United.
For no obvious reason, the league took the whole of April off. Mahtal used that time to further drill the tactic into the boys, which paid off as another Ismail brace led a 4-1 win at Malaysian University. That strong start continued as Perak began the season with a new league record nine consecutive wins. Ismail bagged a brilliant hat trick to inspire a 6-2 thumping of WTS and extend the streak to 10, which finally ended with a 1-1 at Kelantan. But they got back on track by absolutely dominating supposed nearest challengers Harini, racking up 17 shots to 0 in the first half and somehow only winning 2-1 (obviously conceding the only shot on target). That took Perak into the halfway point of the campaign with 12 wins out of 13 but only a 6-point lead.
Another Cup Run?
Malaysia has two domestic cups, the Piala Malaysia and the slightly more reputable Shopee Piala FA Malaysia (40th v 37th in Asian competitions). First up was Piala FA Malaysia and Perak hosted last season’s Super League runners-up Sabah in the first round. But their league form carried over into the cup as they bossed the game with 19 shots to 11 and 2.15 xG to 1.11, and a Chewy brace inspired a 4-0 thumping – in which they smashed the club’s gate receipts with a much-needed £170k payout. Super League strugglers MPPD were dismissed 5-2 by Ismail and Zulki braces, taking Perak into the quarter finals at home to holders Selangor, who were 2nd in the Super League. And the run ended there with a pretty humbling but slightly unlucky 5-2 loss as Selangor scored their first four shots on target. Selangor went on to defend their crown, beating Malaysia’s dominant force Johor DT, who are on course for their 16th successive Malaysian title, 4-0 in the final.
The two-legged ties of Piala Malaysia began in August and Perak beat Super League strugglers PDRM 7-6 on aggregate, Kuala Lumpur City 9-5, then Terengganu 9-3 to reach an unexpected Final. Perak’s players had more than a month off waiting for their first Piala Malaysia Final since 2018, and it showed in Mahtal’s first meeting with the mighty Johor. They never got going in the first half and were made to pay for it, but showed signs of improvement after the break before conceding to a late free kick. On the positive front, Perak bagged £600k in gate receipts from the final.
Perak Push For Immediate Promotion
The second half of the campaign began with a trip to 2nd-place SAINS. Shamsuddin headed home at the back post only to immediately concede. Midfielder Omar Zin scored two identical curled 25-yarders either side of Naim doubling the lead in first-half injury time, and Ismail and Naim crowned an impressive 6-1 win. A few days later, Perak entertained 3rd-place Armed Forces and the unbeaten run ended with a 1-0 defeat. They bounced back by thumping bottom-side Melaka 4-2 away before two more Ismail goals led a 4-0 win over UiTM.
A second defeat followed 2-0 at Kuantan but they responded in style with a ludicrous 8-4 win at Manjung in which both Aziz and Chewy bagged braces. That gave Perak a chance to secure promotion at home to 3rd-place YPM. A magnificent 30-yard freekick by Shamsuddin put them ahead and Zulki’s neat volley removed any nerves. A delicious volleyed assist by Muhd Aiman Hakim Abdul Nasir teed up opposite winger Naim for a third, which secured a 3-0 win to seal promotion with four games remaining.
But Mahtal wasn’t content with just securing promotion. A few days later, Chewy’s hat trick led a 7-2 hammering of Bukit before two Halim penalties and another Chew hat trick led a 7-5win at WTS, who were gifted goals with all of their shots on target by Perak’s appalling goalkeeper. But another wild win was enough to secure the MBSB Bank Championship title!
Perak finished the season with a fan day that saw a bumper league-record attendance of 7,526 watch them thrash SAINS 5-2. But that was far from the only record they broke as Perak racked up new club and league records for points (70), wins (23) and goals scored (109) – that’s 4.1 goals per match! Chew was 2nd-top scorer with 23 in 25, only bettered by an Armed Forces 18-year-old who smashed 27 in 26, Ismail and Halim led the assists chart with 13 and 12, and Perak had the top four average ratings led by Ismail’s ridiculous new league record 8.03 in 22 games.
Celebrating A Second Career Promotion
Mahtal earned a second promotion in three years by guiding Perak to a dominant Malaysian Championship title. Chew led the way with a new club record 31 goals in 35 games, plus 7 assists, but the star of the season was very much Ismail, who scored 21 and got a new club record 19 assists in 30 games. Zulki also impressed with 24 goals and 14 assists, Shamsuddin scored 11 and got 9 assists from centre back, Halim scored 10 and got 14 assists from right back, Naim scored 11 and Aziz got 10 goals and 14 assists.
However, next season was going to be a tough ride, considering Perak were losing both Ismail and Naim and a mass of players would depart at the end of their contracts. So Mahtal would have his work cut out to strengthen for their return to the Malaysian Super League.
Could Mahtal keep Perak safe from relegation? Join us on Monday to find out!
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