The former national goalkeeper expressed the view two days before the 20-member team fly to Pakistan capital Islamabad, which will host the 9th edition of the regional Olympic competition from March 27 to April 7.

"You can never expect good results after such a poor preparation but the individual skills of my boys has given me fresh hope," said Shantoo during his side's one and only practice match against Mohammedan Sporting Club at the Kamalapur Stadium last night.

The Bangladesh coach was very unhappy with the state of the affairs since taking over the job last month. Shantoo hardly got enough time to work with the full squad and that was his main complaint as the clubs were reluctant to release their players during the course of the Premier League.

"The match against Moha-mmedan was the first time I watched them in action after a week's training and they looked pretty lively, which is inspiring," said Shantoo, whose side won 4-3.

But his main concern before the Islamabad extravaganza is the fatigue of the boys after the grueling league.

"The players looked burnt out after the Premier League and I've to think of ways to build their stamina," he said.

Bangladesh will get four days before they launch their title defence. They won the football gold in Kathmandu in 1999.

Shantoo will only be able to formulate his game plan after the revised fixture is finalized on March 23.

The organizers of the 9th SAF Games agreed to announce a new fixture following Bangladesh's protest of being placed in one group with India Maldives and Bhutan. According to the standard rules both losing semifinalists of the last edition India and Maldives should not have been placed in the same group.

Monwar Hossain, the lone survivor from the 1999 SAF Games gold medallist team, will lead the Under-23 team as the event for first time allowed only three over-aged booters in the competition.

"When I last played for the national team in Nepal I was the junior member. This time I am most experienced campaigner and I am also excited at the prospect of winning the title again," said Monwar.

But the hard working Brothers Union midfielder, whose second-half goal against Muktijoddha gave the men in Orange their maiden League title, said that the boy's of 1999 were technically better footballers than the present lot.

Jewel Rana, who captained Bangladesh to glory in Kathmandu, was also disappointed at the selection policy.

"How could they ignore players like Kanchan, Moni and Hasan? It's not only a weak team but has had a poor build up before such a big event," said the Mohammedan central defender.

But when the point about the missing trio was raised, Shantoo said that Kanchan and Moni were reluctant to play in the SAF Games because they failed to attend the training sessions.

"I think Parvez and Kaiser are better options than Hasan at left-back."

SQUAD
Masud Parvez, Rashed Ahmed, Ashraful Kader, Abdullah Al Parvez, Aminul Islam, Mehedi Hasan Ujjal, Mustafa Anwar Parvez, Firoz Mahmud Hossain Titoo, Zahid Hasan Emily, Monwar Hossain (captain), Mohammed Sujon, Ziaur Rahman, Atiqul Islam Tariq, Ashraful Karim, Arman Aziz, Kamal Hossain, Haris-uz-Zaman, Zahidul Hasan Dalim, Yousuf Ali Khan and Akram Hossain.