The Singapore Selection side was tipped by coach Radojko Avramovic at the pre-match conference on Friday to give visiting Burnley FC their toughest test yet in the Clarets' three match pre-season tour of Singapore.

On Saturday evening the makeshift Lions side crashed 0-1 to the visitors at Jalan Besar Stadium through a second-half Chris Eagles free-kick, but earned the praise of the visiting team's coach Brian Laws who agreed wholeheartedly with Avramovic's pre-match promise.

“These are the toughest opponents that we've played, Raddy was absolutely spot on at the pre-match conference that it was going to be our toughest game and he was quite right,” explained the Clarets boss.

“He's got good players and you can see the talent there, they've got a bright future ahead I'm sure. They are creative, especially early in the game they were very good.”

With a near capacity 5,196 vociferous fans in attendance, Law was referring to the start of the game when both sides were looking to stake their claim for the supporters hearts.

An opening flurry of attacks by both sides in the first fifteen minutes of the game had the crowd's interest piqued with Burnley spurning a couple of half chances through Chris Eagles and Steve Thompson, while the Lions had a goal ruled out by Referee Abdul Malik when Fairoz Hasan had the ball in the back of the net after the whistle had gone.

Abdul Malik's decision-making would unfortunately take centre-stage for the rest of the game and drew the ire of Avramovic at the post-match conference.

“I think we gave a good game to the people who came to see this game, they should be really happy with what they saw and it was a good game from both teams,” said the long serving National coach.

“Only I'm livid definitely, and think to ask the Federation to not put any more Singapore referees (for future matches).”

“It's not the first time this has happened and that goal came from a free kick that don't exist. That's what it is,“ said the coach bluntly.

The free-kick in question came minutes after the break, when Dean Marney was allegedly tripped on the edge of the penalty box while shaping up for a shot on goal.

Eagles stepped up confidently and effortlessly directed his powerful shot round the wall and into the far corner of the net from the left edge of the penalty area, leaving the outstretched Shahril Jantan in goal no chance.

The period of play that preceded the goal had been largely uneventful after both team's enthusiastic opening.

With Shi Jiayi surprisingly starting at right-back, and Hariss Harun and Shahdan Sulaiman shepherding play in the centre of the park, the experimental Lions side kept a calm presence on field and stifled the Burnley offence from creating anything more than half chances.

The frustration in the Clarets' ranks started to seep through with the players beginning to show signs of contempt by deliberately kicking away dead balls that required restarts, but at no time did Abdul Malik see the need for a caution of any kind.
Perhaps after their virtual 5-0 walkovers in their previous two games, the Clarets had expected a similar less sterner test.

But it was a Burnley player who would eventually get the first booking of the game at the stroke of half-time when Daniel Fox barged into Yasir Hanapi's back after a long ball had sailed over Fox's head and looked to have given Yasir a clear run at goal.

A neatly worked free-kick between Shahril Ishak and Shi Jiayi ended with the latter firing straight at the foot of the wall from the edge of the right penalty area.

But Shahril did manage to collect the rebound and send in a measured shot that floated just inches over the crossbar as Brian Jensen looked on surprisingly calm.

At the restart, Avramovic introduced Agu Casmir and Fazrul Nawaz in place of Khairul Amri and Fairoz Hasan respectively for a more attack minded approach and gave Shahril a chance in goal as well.

Both Gombak frontmen would play integral roles in attacks as the game progressed, but neither could have denied being wasteful upfront.

Right on the hour mark, Fazrul was played through on goal but the former Young Lion ran the ball straight into Jensen's arms instead, after getting into the penalty box.

Almost immediately after, Burnley relinquished possession and Casmir teased and danced down the left flank before cutting into the penalty area and firing a shot towards the near post which the Burnley custodian collected with ease.

Casmir would be guilty of a similar chance later in the game when he opted to shoot over the crossbar after having done well to work his way in front of goal, despite having better options to his right.

Five minutes later, Yasir got on the end of a looping cross at the far-post, but unmarked, the midfielder volleyed his shot first-time just past the upright, for his last kick of the game as he then made way for Masrezwan Masturi.

With the game wearing on, Burnley switched to a more physical style of play that at times drew some bewildering decisions from the man in the middle, who would book just one more Clarets player before the final whistle.

Masrezwan's introduction thus offered much more aggression in the final third of the field and the Geylang man relished his role as playmaker, saving his best for the final play of the game.

Having won the ball in midfield the hard way, Masrezwan launched a quick counter and played a perfect through ball to Fazrul down the right.

Well behind the Burnley defence and with plenty of time to get himself into a good position, the striker left fans in dismay when he failed to beat Jensen one-on-one, instead firing straight at the goal keeper.

Regardless, Avramovic was pleased with the shift put in by his charges.

“I'm very happy with the boys in this game, they've done more than I was expecting,” said the Serbian.

“They've done really well. It's a shame they didn't score at least one goal, the opportunity was there.  But that's football and that's what it is.”

The National coach also offered his take on his tactical decisions for the evening.

“That idea's been there a long time, its not just today,”  he explained on Shi's position at the right of the backline.

“Because we are missing players that can play and keep the ball, and pass and come back. He did well, he got that covered. But we'll see later on (if he should carry on there).”

As for the new centre midfield partnership of Hariss and Shahdan,

“They've done well, they done really well. And it was not easy for them. They were playing against Premier League players,” he offered in praise of the young duo.

“The Premier League players they had experience, but Hariss and Shahdan coped well. Generally I'm happy with what they've done. One thing is that they must be more crafty, but I think that part comes with experience.”

Avromovic also let on his plans for the team in the run-up to the Asian Games in November.

“There are a few players that we tried against Myanmar. There's another 4 or 5 more players that we are looking to give chance to, to see how they are.”

“There's one tournament in Vietnam and one more hopefully in Thailand and we can talk about 3 to 6 games and hope to be ready for Asian Games.”

His Burnley counterpart meanwhile clearly had his own issues in mind and let slip the possibility of losing his star player.

“Chris has got the ability to score goals out of nothing. He's been good at set plays, he has been dangerous for that. He's pleasing to the eye and it excited the crowd,” said Law of his goalscorer.

“It was fitting that he actually scored the goal that won the game. We hope he's still with us at the start of the season.”

Law also offered more praise of his opponents and seemed pleased with his team's preparations in the far-east.

“They've got a really good understanding of the game and at times they caused us a few problems.” he said of the Lions.

“I was pleased with that because it's what we wanted, we didn't want any easy games we wanted the opposition to pose some questions. Our goalkeeper Brian Jensen had to pull off a fantastic save for us to win the game.”

“Certainly the hardest of the three games, without question. Raddy has a good side there, they pass the ball really well. Overall I was pleased with the work ethics we had in the game. That's exactly the kind of game we wanted.”

In conclusion the Burnley boss extended his gratitude to the fans and expressed the possibility of future ventures to the island.

“To have this game as our last game just before leaving, it finishes the tournament off nicely for us. And we appreciate everybody in Singapore for their hospitality, it was first class. All we can say is really good things about Singapore,” he told Sleague.com.

“We'd like to extend that thanks by even coming back here in the near future. We've looked at that and we've certainly talked about that and looking at the support the Singapore people have given us, we'd be very pleased to come back.”