The team from Aceh province had gone into the game worrying about match officials showing home side bias, something they know a lot about as this story testifies.
Franco Hita scored the only goal of them securing Mitra Kukar's path to the semi finals on 50 minutes in what looks like a bad tempered game with PSAP collecting seven yellow cards and one red.
Mitra Kukar will be joined by Persiba Bantul after they came from 3-0 down against PSMS to draw 3-3 thanks to a hat trick from Fortune Udo. Heartbreak for PSMS, one of Indonesia's real glamour clubs, who had raced to a 3 goal lead before half time but Fortune has been scoring for fun all season.
So Mitra Kukar and Persiba will join Persidafon and Persiraja in the semi finals to be held at Solo next week and you can hear a collective sigh of relief at the League headquarters. Persidafon come from Papua, Mitra Kukar from East Kalimantan and Persiraja from Aceh. None of those teams are likely to bring large numbers of fans.
Persiba, on the other hand, are from DIY. The journey to Solo will be a short one for the Persiba supporters, known as Paserbumi, who have been filling their Sultan Agung Stadium all season.
While any promoted teams wil have earnt their promotion on merit (yeah, I know) nne are going to increase the average attendance in the ISL significantly.
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