October 21, 2004

Steve Darby felt his team could not have played any better & still deserved to lose to Al Jaish for they were the better side.

The Englishman said No excuses. We were simply beaten by a better team. Al Jaish have many Syrian Internationals in their ranks & played very well. They were also physically stronger than us. We defended well but that was no stopping those goals

The Protectors may be the tournament's leading scorers with 24 goals in eight games, but they were helpless against a solid Al Jaish defence that have not conceded a single goal throughout the tournament & now faced the prospect of missing the services of S-League Player of the Year J Surachai for the return fixture after the Thai limped off with a hamstring injury.

Looking ahead to next week's game, the Englishman said Realistically, I will not say that we are going to win the game by four to five goals, but we will definitely be going for a win. The team want to restore some professional pride & dignity & if we can score first at home, anything can happen.