Bangladesh National Women’s football team coach Peter Butler tried to keep his courage despite the defending champions' shocking draw against Pakistan in their opening match of the SAFF Women's Championship in Kathmandu on Sunday.
In a bid to defend the title, Bangladesh women team just narrowly escaped from the defeat when Shamsunnahar Jr struck a goal in the injury time to salvage the champions.
The Englishman who took charge in March following a brief spell from Saiful Bari Titu after the resignation of long-serving Golam Rabbani Choton last year, praised his team while expressing distress not getting 'deserved three points'.
The former West Ham booter, said, “I’m not disappointed with how it went but I'm a realist. We march on and take the momentum from tonight's game into the next game against India on the 23rd. We'll kick on and surprise a few people."
The women in red and green did everything to get goals with dominating the possession throughout 90 minutes game and also took shot for several times but failed to mark the targets.
Meanwhile, the Bangladesh women brushed aside all oppositions on their way to the maiden title in 2022.
Butler, however, felt her team played remarkably well but were unfortunate not to get three points against a side, who were under pressure for full times.
“I'm really proud of the girls. I thought they were absolutely superb. Anybody who criticises us knows nothing about football," said Butler.
"I've played in every level, the English Premier League and I've managed over thousand matches. And I can honestly say that I've never been involved in a game where we've dominated possession so much, controlled the whole game, played really good football and did not get the result they just deserved, which should have been the three points,” the 58-year-old coach added.
