MFA president Dr Joe Mifsud yesterday expressed his disappointment after the three consecutive defeats at the hands of Portugal (4-0), Albania (3-0) and Denmark (3-0).

He said that not only were the results disappointing but some of the performances fell below par. “As the association’s president, I have the duty to see what can be done to improve the team’s plight.

“It is admitted by one and all that we are in a very difficult group and, considering our limitations, we cannot hope to do well as we had done in the last Euro 2008 qualifiers. We have also started with one home match and two away games. Of course, we never expected miracles from our players, but we are also seeing that the others have strengthened their ranks,” he said.

Dr Mifsud also said that tomorrow’s match against Hungary was another difficult test. “The fans might expect a positive result because of the 2-1 win against the same opponents two years ago. But this is another match, although we all wish we can repeat that success. I can assure you that the coach is doing everything possible in the hope of elevating the players’ morale in order to obtain a positive result. But we must be realistic. We have our limitations with regards to selection of players. Some of those in the current squad, like Gilbert Agius and Brian Said are growing older and their replacements need to gain a lot of experience. They will take some time to settle down,” he said.