Soon after Nepal conceded the goal in the 51st minute, team officials including assistant coach Upendraman Singh, team leader Lalit Krishna Shrestha and team manager Krishna Bhakta Manandhar substituted Santosh Sahukhala in place of Raju Tamang, which was against the wish of coach Roberts, according to an ANFA source. [break]
Soon after the incident, Roberts tried to walk out of the players´ box. A photo taked by Republica photojournalist Bikash Karki shows team media manager Sanjiv Silpakar and Manandhar trying to stop Roberts from leaving the box.
Nepal´s coach confronts with Nepal´s team manager (in black coat)
According to the source, the replacement was made following a directive from ANFA President Ganesh Thapa. "Thapa honed officials in the players´ box and directed that Sahukhala replace Tamang," the source said.
Reporters asked Roberts about the box incident at the post match press conference, but he declined to say any such thing had happened. But he seemed frustrated and didn´t respond properly to queries.
Asked by AFC media manager Chetan Kulkarni about his views on the match, Roberts said, "I have got no views". Asked what went wrong, he said 1-0. Again, when asked why his forwards could not scorel, he said, "Go ask the forwards."
Earlier, during second half, Roberts was seen kicking a water bottle and when asked if there was anything wrong in the box, he said, "Were you there to watch the football match or the water bottle?"
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