Singapore's defence of their Asean Football Federation (AFF) Suzuki Cup crown took another blow when Bernd Stange's team suffered a 0-2 defeat away at Bahrain in a friendly match on Friday evening.

The Lions were undone at the Bahrain National Stadium by goals from forwards Ismaeel Abdullatif and Sami Al Husseini in the 67th and 75th minutes respectively.

Coupled with a 2-2 away draw against Macau and a 1-2 loss at Hong Kong last month, Singapore have not won their last three tune-up matches ahead of their AFF Cup opener against Thailand at the National Stadium on Nov 23.

Despite the loss, national coach Stange felt the first 60 minutes of the game was "one of our best performances since I took over last May".

"I'm never happy with a defeat but this performance has shown me positive things," the German said.

"But we lost our shape over a 20-minute spell after that and Bahrain punished us with a counter-attack.

"My challenge to the players now is to maintain that level for 90 minutes. Do that and we will match anybody."

The Lions will also play Cambodia and Laos at the Jalan Besar Stadium before the regional competition begins. Dates for these matches will be confirmed at a later time.