Booth's reaction

Crown coach David Booth oversees the pre-match warm-up

I caught up with Phnom Penh Crown head coach David Booth immediately after the final whistle for his take on his team's opening Metfone C-League game of the season, a 3-0 defeat by rivals Preah Khan Reach. "I thought we started the game very well but we lost the ball in the middle of their half and didn't offer enough of a challenge for the first goal. He's gone through two challenges on the edge of our box. And you cannot legislate for the 2nd goal. It took the game away from us and made us chase the game when we were well into it. It's something we'll have to look at."

"We didn't do too bad in the 2nd half until the last ten minutes when we were chasing the game. We played quite well and created a few chances - they had two and we had four or five - but today was not our day. Suhana's on another day would've gone in and Borey missed one by inches. Our passing let us down a bit today and we gave the ball away too frequently. But it's our first game and we'll get better than that. They out-triggered us this afternoon."

"I'll have to look at our system. I've tried to play the same system as last season but I'm not sure we have the right players to play it, so I may alter it slightly," was his reaction to any changes ahead of Crown's next game, against Western University on Sunday (25 March) at 4pm. There are also question marks over injuries to Henry Asonibe and Sok Pheng, who missed the match.

The positive side of the game was the first appearance in a league match for Khim Borey, some seventeen months after joining Crown in November 2010. His former Army teammate, Pheak Rady also made his debut for Crown after the club received clearance that both players were eligible to join the starting line-up. Eight players made their league baptism for Crown this afternoon including new foreign additions, Emmanuel Frimpong, who went off with cramp, and Henry Asonibe, who limped off with a foot injury.