Trust to Thrust Ahead

After 2-1 debut loss to Malaysia, interim coach Lee urges Lions to back themselves

- Deepanraj Ganesan

Keep calm and trust ourselves. That is interim Singapore coach Gavin Lee's message for his charges after his debut as the Lions' team ended in a 2-1 loss to Malaysia in an international friendly at the Bukit Jalil National Stadium on Sept 4.

The hosts, whose starting XI comprised mainly foreign-born players, led 2-0 through goals by Stuart Wilkin and Joao Figueiredo, before substitute Ilhan Fandi halved the deficit in the second half.

In a broadcast interview right after the match, the 34-year-old Lee said: "We should trust ourselves a little bit more. I thought there were some very good phases from us, both in attack and defence, but it's just about repeating it, and I think that requires a little bit of calmness, a little more trust in what we do.

"But it's the first step in our journey, and I'm sure we will continue to improve."

He sang a similar tune at the post-match conference when asked for the lessons learnt from the loss.

Lee, who said the players were "quite disappointed with the result", added: "We always play to win, and we definitely wanted to win. But in terms of the process, the performance that we put out there, there were... quite a lot of good phases.