Two-goal regret for Sabuj

Penalty-corner specialist Shohanur Rahman Sabuj returned with a broken heart after missing out on a golden opportunity to break a 29-year-old record for the highest goal-scorer in the Premier Division Hockey League.

Sabuj, who started playing as a forward before switching to defender's role later, scored one of the four goals on Friday in Dhaka Mariner Youngs Club's 4-2 win over Bangladesh Police in their last match of the league.

The single goal took Sabuj's goals tally to 39 from 15 matches, one goal less than record 40-goal haul by former national forward Rafiqul Islam Kamal set in 1995.

"I do have regrets because I went very close to equaling or breaking the record. I am not thinking of it now because my first target was to produce good results for my club. Of course, I will remember it for a long time and but I will definitely attempt to break that record in future," said Sabuj after the match at the Maulana Bhasani Hockey Stadium.

Out of the 39 goals, Sabuj converted 22 goals from penalty corners, 14 goals from open play and three from penalty strokes. The penalty corner specialist was also the highest scorer in the last league with 33 goals.

Sabuj, who started playing in the top league in 2012 for Azad SC and started representing Bangladesh since his debut in the 2017 Asia Cup against China, wasted at least five penalty corners and an open net opportunity. He felt luck was not on his side.

"There are good and bad days for everyone but I don't want to stop here. I will try to find out why I could not break the record and will try not to make the same mistakes while playing for Bangladesh Air Force and the national team in coming days," said Sabuj.

Asked whether he was under pressure for breaking the record, Sabuj said, "Actually there was no such much pressure on me but I knew that I could touch the record if we could score goals. I could have got goals if I could play my natural game. May be luck did not favour me and I have to accept it."