Singapore were left to rue their luck on Friday evening as they played out a 0-0 draw with archrivals Malaysia at the National Stadium in the Causeway Challenge after hitting the bar three times.
In a game in front of 24,928 fans which saw them enjoy the better of the proceedings against an inexperienced Malaysia outfit, Khairul Amri, Hariss Harun and Daniel Bennett all came close to winning it for the hosts only to be denied by the woodwork.
While the result means the Lions continue to wait for their first official win since June's 1-0 triumph over Myanmar, their spirited display would have given coach V. Sundramoorthy plenty to be satisfied about.
Showing real bite and endeavour from the opening whistle, Singapore immediately went about gaining an upper hand in the contest.
Faritz Hameed looked extremely lively at right-back and twice bombed forward to good effect, creating decent openings from which Faris Ramli and Izzdin Shafiq failed to capitalise on.
Despite their best efforts, Malaysia were struggling to find their rhythm but they did threaten shortly after the half-hour mark when Amri Yahyah's speculative 25-yard effort forced Hassan into a flying save.
Then, three minutes before the break, the hosts were extremely unlucky not to break the deadlock when Amri's left-footed curler from the right came back off the bar, before a follow-up header by Hariss also smashed into the woodwork.
Right on the stroke of half-time, the Malaysians nearly capitalised on that close shave through another ambitious effort, but Hassan did well to keep out Hazwan Bakri's drive at full stretch.
As the game wore on, the Lions looked increasingly determined to find a breakthrough and Baihakki Khaizan looked destined to do just that when he was picked out by a low cross from Amri, only to be denied by a brilliant block from Shahrom Abdul Kalam.
15 minutes from time, Singapore had one final chance to grab a deserving win after Bennett had made his way forward and dispatched a header that had Khairul Azhan Khalid beaten all ends up, only to see it come back off the bar.
By then, it looked as though luck would be on the side of the Malaysians and they went on to produce a gritty, if at times nervous, display in the closing stages to shut up shop and held out for a draw.