KOTA BHARU: Kelantan FC coach Angel Alfredo Vera had absolutely no idea of the East storm that was about to hit his team on Monday.
And even though it rained heavily that day and the Super League match at Sultan Muhd IV Stadium was delayed for one hour 36 minutes.
Kelantan were blown away 8-0 by Terengganu in the Super League's biggest defeat of the season, Even mighty JDT haven't done this.
Argentine Vera was left flabbergasted as the East coast derby turned into a mismatch as Kelantan received a beating that they will remember for the rest of their lives.
It turned out to be a long night for Vera when the match only started at 10:36pm instead of the normal 9pm kickoff.
All that waiting made the Turtles more kinetic as they hit Kelantan with goals from Ivan Mamut (14th minute, 53rd, 66th), Nurillo Tukhtasinov (27th), Nik Muhammad Sharif Haseefy Mohd Lazim (36th), Engku Muhammad Nur Shakir Engku Yacob @ Engku Azman (41st), Safwan Mazlan (47th) and Hakimi Abdullah (63rd).
Kelantan, who are slapped with a Fifa transfer ban (over players' salaries), could not field their new foreign signings — Aliakbar Ahmadi, Allie Sisse, Ahmed Magdy and Dennis Buschening on Monday. They could deploy only Indonesian Natanael Siringoringo and Argentine Leonardo Rolon.
Vera said everything went wrong for his team in the match, but he would not blame his players.
"We tried to play our game but we couldn't challenge Terengganu. After conceding a few goals, our players' mentality was affected.
"Our players tried their best but the opponents were stronger and more experienced."
Kelantan are second last in the 14-team table with eight points from 20 matches.
Kelantan's next match is against an even stronger team than Terengganu. They will meet JDT away in the second leg of the Malaysia Cup's round of 16 on Saturday. Kelantan lost the first leg 5-1.
Terengganu's Croatian coach Tomislav Steinbruckner, who was sympathetic to Vera for the crushing defeat, said Kelantan struggled as they had only two imports.
"I don't know how their coach feels with an 8-0 loss, but it's definitely not a good feeling."