Robson laments tired Thai showing
Reuters - Thursday 02 December 2010, 02:12
SINGAPORE - Former England captain Bryan
Robson was forced to endure what has been described as
Thailand's worst performance when the national side team twice
needed to come from behind to squeeze a draw with lowly Laos
in the Suzuki Cup on Wednesday night.
Laos, rated 171st in FIFA's rankings below the likes of
Cayman Islands, New Caledonia and Nepal, had Robson's team on
the run in the Southeast Asian championships opening night
which ended 2-2.
"We were lucky to get two goals back," the former
Manchester United skipper said after the clash in Jakarta,
before blaming the performance on fatigue.
"My players did not get enough preparation because we had
a hard game on Sunday in the (Thai) FA Cup final.
"Some players were tired," he told the Bangkok Post.
Thailand, ranked 114 in the world, entered the tournament
as one of the favourites but the three-times winners will need
to up their performance in their next two games against
Malaysia and Indonesia in Group A to progress to the
semi-finals.
Thailand will next play Malaysia on Saturday.
Group B is being staged in Hanoi and features Vietnam,
Singapore, Burma and the Philippines. The top two teams from
each group advance to the semi-finals.