The result came as no surprise given that Chanwit Pholcheewin's side was the U-23 squad preparing for the Asian Games at the end of this year, while his Chinese counterpart, Zhu Guanghu, fielded China's senior team, who are scheduled to play Singapore in a crunch Asian Cup qualifier next Wednesday.

The hosts made their class count with goals from Li Jinyu, Wang Dong, Du Zhenyu and Xu Liang underlining their overwhelming superiority.

Despite the heavy loss, Chanwit said he was happy with his young side's performance. But he was critical of the referee, who sent mid-field playmaker Datsakorn Thonglao off early in the second half following what Chanwit described as a harsh second bookable offence.

"Our performance was not too bad. I do not want to make excuses for the defeat but I think Datsakorn should not have been given a red card," Chanwit said.

"The refereeing was very poor. And if you ask me, I think we only lost 1-0 from the first goal, which resulted from a defensive error."

Kitinan Sanguansak

The Nation