Despite a 2-1 win over Kuala Lumpur at the Jalan Besar Stadium on Tuesday, LIONSXII coach V. Sundramoorthy insists his side have plenty of work to do.

After a 2-1 loss to Kelantan and a 0-0 draw with Kedah in the opening two games, LIONSXII finally picked up their first victory of the 2012 Malaysia Super League season after beating a lacklustre Kuala Lumpur.

Sundram's charges took the lead in the 29th minute after KL left-back Alman Syawan bundled the ball into his own net, before Shahdah Sulaiman doubled their advantage after capitalising on a mistake by opposition goalkeeper Rozaimie Rohim.

However, Kuala Lumpur got back in the game in the 67th minute when they were awarded a penalty after Safuwan Baharudin hauled down Fazuan Abdullah in the box, an incident which saw the LIONSXII defender receive his marching orders for a second bookable offence.

Fazuan picked himself up to dispatch the spot-kick past LIONSXII custodian Izwan Mahbud, but the hosts held on for a much-needed three points, although their coach was far from pleased after the game, especially with his players' inability to put away their chances.

"I was okay [with our performance] up till the 70th minute," Sundramoorthy said in his post-match press conference. "After the sending-off of Safuwan, it was tough.

"The boys must start to grow up. We had many chances to finish the game, and we would have been punished by stronger teams.

"For the first 70 minutes, we showed good passing, down the flank and through the middle. After that, we got sloppy.

"The players must learn to be composed, especially inside the box. They don't seem to realise how much time they have.

"We created many chances and should have been three or four goals up."

However, despite being unhappy with certain aspects of his team's performance, Sundramoorthy was quick to defend under-fire captain Shahril Ishak, who was employed in an unfamiliar role of striker against KL due to an injury to regular spearhead Agu Casmir.

"Shahril had a lot of the ball, and tried to penetrate the opposition when he had the opportunity.

"He is not a natural striker, but we needed to him to hold up the ball in attack, especially because of Agu's absence."

And it seems likely that Shahril will have to continue as a striker in the LIONSXII's upcoming games, especially after substitute Khairul Nizam picked up an injury late on in the game, adding to Sundramoorthy's injury woes.

"We will have to convert someone as a striker," the LIONSXII coach added. "This is the squad I have and we'll have to make do."

On the other hand, Kuala Lumpur coach Mohd Razip Ismail was considerably pleased with his charges, although he admitted they only had themselves to blame for the defeat.

"We played well and enjoyed the hard game," Razip said. "We fought hard for 90 minutes.

"The LIONSXII's goals were scored through our own mistakes. The first goal was our defender's mistake, and the second goal from our goalkeeper.

"We tried to come back after [we scored] the penalty but we couldn't find the second goal."

The Kuala Lumpur coach also insisted his side were rarely troubled by the hosts, calling the LIONSXII attack 'predictable'.

"The LIONSXII style is very predictable, as I told my players before the game.

"They will always play long balls into the box."

Nonetheless, Razip was pleased his team managed to get their first goal of the campaign, and hoped it would boost his strikers' confidence in the coming games.

"It was good to finally find the net.

"We need to create more chances to score goals. Hopefully this will spur them on to score more in future games."

LIONSXII are next in action on Saturday when they travel for a tricky away game against Sabah, while Kuala Lumpur entertain PKNS FC at the Hang Jebat Stadium.