THAILAND 4:0 SINGAPORE

King's Cup 2002 Tournament

10/02/2002 16:00 TST. SUPRACHALASAI STADIUM,  BANGKOK

THAILAND 4:0 SINGAPORE  HALF TIME: THAILAND 1:0 SINGAPORE

Thailand make flying start
Hosts hit four past Singapore

Thailand made an impressive start to the 33rd King's Cup tournament yesterday when they defeated Singapore 4-0 in the tournament's opening match at Bangkok's Suphachalasai Stadium.

In front of a crowd of around 25,000, Thailand _ despite fielding several new young players including sweeper Jakkraphan Panpee making his national team debut _ continued their domination over their Southeast Asian rivals whom they beat 5-0 in Singapore in August.

In the ninth minute, midfielder Therdsak Chaiman hit the bar with a 25-metre free-kick and a minute later Tananchai Boriban failed to convert a chance provided for him by Therdsak.

But Thailand found the target in the 19th minute when Anuruck Srikerd fired home a fine shot after a good move.

Apart from a Sakesan Pituratana header which went just over the bar, Thailand failed to really threaten the Singapore goal in the second half until the 75th minute when substitute Sakda Jermdee blasted a fierce shot home after a long ball from Therdsak.

Two minutes later it was 3-0 thanks to a dreadful error from Singapore goalkeeper Mohamed Rezal bin Hassan who completely missed his kick after a back pass from Subramani Shunmugham and although Pitipong Kuldilok rushed up to try and score, the ball dribbled into the net without the Thai player touching it.

Thailand scored their fourth goal in the last minute when Nirut Surasiang crossed the ball from the right wing-back position and Kwanchai Phuangprakob was on hand to find the back of the net.

Afterwards a delighted Thailand head coach Peter Withe said: ``I was very pleased with the new players, especially Anucha Kitpongsri in the left wing-back position.

``He gave me a high level of performance and if he can continue to play like that, it will be good for him.

``New strikers Pitipong and substitute Sakda really played very well and Jakkraphan produced an impressive performance for his first match in the national team.

``The senior players like Therdsak, Anuruck and Surachai Jirasirichote helped the young players very well.

``I have been working for the last week on the communication between the established players and the new players.

``It was nice to win by four goals and all in all it was a very pleasing performance.

``The Singapore side really put us under pressure in the first half and made it difficult for us to play our game.

``Pitipong and Sakesan really pressured the Singapore goalkeeper for the third goal and they both did very well for us in attack.''

Jan Poulsen, Singapore's head coach, said: ``We know that Thailand are a very good team.

``They are strong and their standard is much higher than the Singapore side.

``But I was satisfied with my team's performance.

``The main problem was that we gave Thailand easy goals.

``We need to improve on that in the next matches.''

SCORERS: Anurak 19, Sakesan 75, Own Goal (SIN) 77, Kwanchai 90