Reappointed coach Maruful Haque's main 1JNR0FT c^a^cn8c *n upcoming Bangabandhu Gold Cup will be restoring the players' "■J?/ confidence after their frustrating perfor-mance in the SAFF Suzuki Cup in India.

However, the 46-year-old coach will only get a short period of time to motivate his charges as he will start the camp in January before the eight-team tournament gets underway on January 8 in Jessore; where hosts Bangladesh and SAFF Suzuki Cup semifinalist Sri Lanka face-off.

"The main challenge for me is to revive the players' confidence following the disastrous performance in the SAFF Championship and I need to motivate them to prepare them for the tournament on home soil, ” said Maruful over phone.

The successful domestic coach also wants to focus on the players' natural performances in the Bangabandhu Gold Cup rather than result-oriented performances.

"I would love to see the natural performance of the players in the tournament. I will be hoping the players perform at their normal levels and showcase what they generally display," hoped Maruful.

Captain Mamunul Islam, who returned home yesterday afternoon along with nine other players from India, has backed his coach and said that only good performance in the Bangabandhu Gold Cup can console them a bit after the disappointing performance in the SAFF Championship.

"We can only come back through performances. Now we have to take the challenge in the Bangabandhu Gold Cup as we failed to perform well in the SAFF Championship. Everyone is criticizing us for our bad performances and all players should be seeking better performances at home," said Mamunul.

Mamunul believes they had enjoyed a good domestic season at the club level, but the end far from reflected those performances.

"We were successful in domestic and international competitions at the club level as Sheikh Jamal DC became champions in federation cup and professional football league and also qualified for the AFC Cup final rounds. Even Chittagong Abahani shone in the Sheikh Kamal International tournament," said Mamunul. "We had also played a lot of international matches this year but we could not shine in the end on a stage for which we toiled hard and sacrificed a lot."