'5 minutes made the difference'

Sheikh Jamal Dhanmondi Club coach Maruful Haque felt two costly mistakes at the beginning and the absence of clinical finishing from his forwards made the difference in their 0-2 defeat against Busan I'Park yesterday. Apart from the first five minutes, when Sheikh Jamal conceded both the goals, Maruful felt his side had played admirably in all the departments.
"The difference was made in those first five minutes," said the 45-year-old coach at the post-match press briefing.
"We thought we would start the match at a brisk pace and catch them napping, but unfortunately the opposite is what happened. A mistake from Landing [Darboe] and wrong positioning of Jamal Bhuiyan gave away the first goal, while the second one was unfortunate as Nasir [Chowdhury] slipped on a soft part of the pitch," explained the UEFA Pro License holder.  
Despite falling two goals behind so early, Maruful didn't shuffle with his attacking strategy and was duly rewarded as his charges put up a fight and dominated possession, even though they failed to find the back of the net. The veteran coach's instruction to Jamal was to operate just in front of the two centre-backs. But the defensive midfielder stayed too far ahead of the defenders during the goals and, after repositioning himself properly, the defence became fortified.
 Maruful's opposite number, Yoon Sung Hyo said: "I thought we could have scored more goals, but the players failed to live up to that expectation. However, I thought that was partly due to the pitch, which was too hard and not of a very high standard."