Al Wasl reiterate faith in coach Diego Maradona

The Argentine legend reveals that he is “very sad” at the punctuation in his side’s progress and urges everyone to focus on bouncing back from the lossThe heavy defeat refuelled doubts over the coaching calibre of Maradona, who was relieved of his duties as the boss of Argentina following an under-par 2010 World Cup campaignHowever, Al Wasl have backed their coach who they say needs time to develop the team.“The season is long, and this is just one match," Al Wasl said in an official club statement."This is just the beginning and we have full faith in our head coach, who is working hard to develop a strong team that will be true contenders for this year’s league title.”Following the defeat on Saturday evening, Maradona had apologised to the club's supporters."I want to apologise to the Al Wasl supporters for this defeat," said the 50-year-old, according to AFP."I am very sad. We were on the right path with two successive victories and now we must focus on the championship and not look back.“I hope that this defeat will not affect the morale of the squad who must learn lessons from this defeat."He added: “That defeat was but a small bump in the road. Ahead of us is a long journey and nothing will deter us from the goal, each game makes us stronger.“The Etisalat Cup was a playground for experimenting with different tactics, formations and starting line-ups in order to uncover our strengths, so that we can use them at full force for the big games. I’d rather we learn from experiences now, rather than [the league].”Al Wasl will take on Al-Sharjah in the first round of UAE league next weekend.