Hong Kong were unable to break their four-year losing streak in the annual Interport Cup last night, but Sebastiao Araujo's compact team were by no means disgraced in a 1-0 defeat against newly crowned Chinese FA Cup winners Shanghai. A well-taken second-half header from pacy attacker Xie Hui was all that separated the two sides after an entertaining battle at the Hong Kong Stadium that Hong Kong will feel they were unlucky to lose. Critics will say Hong Kong should have exploited home advantage to beat a team still recovering from Sunday's Cup Final exertions against Liaoning, and few would dispute that Shanghai looked weary in the early part of the game. But Araujo is still in the process of moulding a team in his image, and even if his side were unable to capitalise on early pressure, the encouraging signs are that he is on the right lines. If any one single fact illustrated that reputations count for nothing with the craggy Brazilian, it is that only two South China players started last night's match. Instead, Araujo opted to start with a lineup drawing heavily from the Happy Valley side that has been setting the early season pace in the Ericsson League. No fewer than seven of the starting 11 came from Valley's ranks and this made for rare cohesion in the home-team lineup. 'We played to a system and it worked well,' was the verdict of Hong Kong's John Moore, one of the three foreign players in the side. 'It's amazing what a bit of organisation can do. We've always had some good players but they haven't always had the coaching. From what I've seen of Sebastiao we've got the right coach. He gives them that little bit of extra confidence - you never hear him criticise players, and he is always positive. If he's unhappy with something he'll let you know about it, but in a very subtle sort of way,' the former Sunderland man added. 'Shanghai were comfortable and they did appear to be playing within themselves a little bit in the first half. 'But I don't think that detracts from the overall performance - 0-0 would have been a fair result, and if I'd put away the chances that came along we could have won,' Moore added. The two principal chances Moore was referring to came either side of half-time. The first, on 38 minutes, came when he met a deep cross by Lo Kai-wah with a header that flew wide. It should have been on target and could easily have yielded a goal. The second chance came soon after Shanghai's goal, Moore scooping over the bar from 10 yards out when he again should have at least forced a save from Chinese national team 'keeper Ou Chuliang . Shanghai's goal came in the 52nd minute. Edson Carvalho turned Shum Kwok-pui inside out down the left flank, went to the byline and whipped in a perfect centre for Xie, who powered into the box to crash home a header past 'keeper Chung Ho-yin. Once in front, Shanghai always looked able to contain Hong Kong, who tired visibly in the final 20 minutes of the clash. In a week when five Hong Kong internationals were charged with match-rigging, it was perhaps predictable that the cynical local crowd at last night's game chose to greet every mistake or stray pass with sarcastic cheers of 'da-gar-bor' (match-fixing), but the commitment shown by Araujo's men could not be questioned. Several players deserve a mention, none more so than midfielder and captain for the night Cheung Sai-ho. The Happy Valley man was a bundle of energy and invention in the centre of the field and covered every inch of the pitch before his substitution late in the game. So too, did his Happy Valley teammate Lo Kai-wah, another player who likes the big stage. Beaten, but not disgraced, Hong Kong now face Vietnam in two weeks before leaving for the Asian Games.