December 2, 2004

FAS president Assoc Prof Ho Peng Kee has come out to state he believed the Lions is able to reach the upcoming Tiger Cup semi-final target set by the FAS beforehand.

He decided to come out to defend the team after media attacks on the Lions in the still ongoing Tiger International Festival which saw Singapore defeating Myanmar 1-0 & drawing 0-0 with Hong Kong. To the media it was not enough as they regarded both as inferior teams with Myanmar not having even reached a Tiger Cup semi-final before & Hong Kong thrashed 1-4 by Singapore a year ago.

Not helping is the performances of the Singapore team as in both matches the Lions had a hard time trying to overcome them.

First Assoc Prof Ho Peng Kee admitted the Lions are capable of better performance but he believed they will show it in the Tiger Cup when the 2 opening matches are crucial as they are against Vietnam & Indonesia, the only 2 teams in the 5-team group that can compete for a semi-final slot with Singapore.

Also he reminded everybody the team is still young & there is the need to keep encouraging them along the way.