Prior Reminds Players To Be Cautious Of Malaysia's Counter Attacks

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 16 (Bernama) -- Thailand women's football team head coach Spencer Prior urged his players to be wary of Malaysia's counter attacks ahead of the second Kuala Lumpur SEA Games preliminary match at the UiTM Stadium in Shah Alam on Aug 20. He said poor defending in Tuesday's match at the UM Arena Stadium resulted in the team having to fight tooth and nail and come back from a goal down to beat Myanmar 3-2 in the opening match. "We must tighten our defence when meeting Malaysia as we gave too much space for the Myanmar players to score an early goal in what you all have seen in today's (Tuesday) match," he told reporters after the match. In the meantime, he also requested the Thailand fans and also the media of the country to not place high hopes on his charges to retain the gold medal as this year's challenge is very stiff quite compared to previous editions. "I dont want to talk much on our team’s chances of retaining the gold medal since I want the players to stay focused as we take match by match and not thinking about that," the 46-year-old Englishman asserted. Meanwhile, Myanmar head Roger Reijners slammed the players for their lack of focus towards the end of the match which allowed Thailand to score the winning goal. "I really appreciate the effort of my players who played well throughout the match but in football, you must use your brain on how to attack and how to prevent your opponent from scoring," said a frustated Reijners. -- BERNAMA