February 15, 2007	Thursday	Muharram 26, 1428

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LAHORE, Feb 14: Pakistan football coach praised his side for a 3-2 win, while his Singapore counterpart blamed his defenders for irresponsible play during crucial stages of Olympic qualifying round match on Wednesday.

"The boys have really done a good job as they fought back after being 2-0 down and proved they have the stamina to fight till last whistle," Pakistan coach Mohammad Rasheed told reporters after Pakistan beat Singapore."After being 2-0 down we made changes in the combination and went with five forwards. But it is a fact that substitute Farooq Shah played a pivotal role in victory as he created several chances," Rasheed said.

The coach, however, refused to accept that Pakistan captain Zahid Hameed was unimpressive which forcd him to replace him with Farooq.

"Zahid was bit slow but he deserved praise as his team won the match," Rasheed said.

The coach, who admitted that support from local crowd also played role in Wednesday’s victory, said though the next round was tough, Pakistan would give Qatar, Bahrain and Kuwait resistance.

Singapore's coach Terry Pathmanathan was disappointed after his team’s back-to-back defeats.

"Conceding an own-goal was a blunder of my defenders as that raised Pakistan’s confidence and they staged a comeback,” Pathmanathan said.

He said after taking 2-0 lead his forward missed some scoring chances which proved dearly.

Pathmanathan, however, was not very much impressed with Pakistan’s performance.

"Pakistani boys still have technical deficiencies, but at the end who will win will receive the praise," Pathmanathan said adding that his side had had all key players during home and away matches.

Meanwhile, Farooq Shah, who scored one of the two goals for Pakistan, said he was confident of a victory at home.

"We have done hard work for this match as our Bahraini coach Salman Sharida and Rasheed have been working on modern lines to train us," he said and expressed hope of better results in the second round.