Bangladesh have already crashed out of their maiden appearance at the FIFA Asean Cup, having looked distinctly mediocre against East Asian opponents again, even though most observers agreed they had shown some improvement in their second Group A fixture on Monday, losing 1-0 against Singapore in Jakarta.

Earlier a dreadfully colourless performance from Bangladesh saw them crashing to a 3-0 defeat against Malaysia at the same venue in their opening fixture on Wednesday.

Bangladesh coach Thomas Dooley made four changes to his starting lineup from the one that took the field against Malaysia.

They saw Jamal Bhuyan (replaced Sohel Rana), Zidane Yousuf (replaces Shakil Topu), Shuki Itofusa (replaces Farhaan Ali Wahid), and Sheikh Morsalin (replaces Fahamedul Islam) introduced into the lineup.

Both sides adopted a more cautiously tactical approach on Monday, with clear cut chances few and far between. The Bangladeshi keeper however, was certainly the busier of the two custodians, at least in the first half.

But in the 35th minute, what looked like a quite innocuous cross from the left was met by a strong header from just inside the box by Harhys Stewart, and all Mehedy Hasan could do was pick it out of the back of his net.

The Singaporeans would also hit the crossbar before the first half ran out, as the gap in quality between the two sides, particularly up front, threatened to expose itself. In the second half though, they seemed happy to just protect that lead, able to rely on Bangladesh’s lack of quality when it comes to creating and converting chances, and take home the 3 points.

That keeps them in contention to qualify for the next round on Matchday 3, when they take on Malaysia.

Bangladesh will have pride to play for on the same day, when they close their campaign against hosts Indonesia.