The New Nation - Internet Edition

UNB, Dhaka

Bangladesh national football team captain Aminul Haque has said the country's football would have to start again from the beginning to bring it back on track.

"The two practice matches in Bangkok boosted our inspiration before the SAFF Championship, but we failed to play well in Sri Lanka," he told the reporters after returning from Sri Lanka on Wednesday.

Aminul, the number one custodian in the country, expressed his surprise about their performance in the opening group match against Bhutan, saying: "We could have lost that match."

He, however, admitted that there preparation for the SAFF Championship was well, but they could not play as per their ability.

The Bangladesh skipper said they should have played better against Bhutan and Afghanistan as they got several scoring chances against both. But he admitted that their performance against Sri Lanka was the worst.

He also found lack of skilled strikers in the team. "Except Emily there was no other good striker in our SAFF squad," he said.

The national booters returned home Wednesday at 12:20 pm from Sri Lanka after a frustrating performance in the 5th SAFF Championship being held in Maldives and Sri Lanka.

Bangladesh made early exit from the championship after making a 1-1 draw with lowly Bhutan, 2-2 draw against Afghanistan and finally losing to hosts Sri Lanka 1-0 in their do-or-die last Group B engagement.