The 62-year-old coach said that he was hoping to get three points from the match but the performance of the hosts “surprised” him.

“We were surprised with the performance of Singapore and the improvement they showed,” he said. “They took good advantage of playing at home and in front of their fans which helped them control the match at some stage.”

“Our side tried to create some threat and we relied on counter attacks in the first half with which we scored two goals. However, we didn’t take advantage of the few chances that we had in the second period.”

“It was a fair result following the performance of the two teams,” said Al Nash.

Yemen will now travel to Bahrain where they are set to face Saudi Arabia in their next match on Tuesday, with Al Nash admitting that playing against their regional rivals will not be an easy task.

“We will now shift our concentration on the match against Saudi Arabia,” he said.

“It will be a difficult match against a strong team who are one of the best teams in the continent,” he added. “We must prepare very well for this match.”