Houghton Doing Fine In India

They are the sentiments of central defender Deepak Mondal, who was the recent recipient of the Arjuna award for outstanding achievement in his field of football.

Houghton took over as India boss in 2006 and is doing a brilliant job in helping improve the status of football in the country.

"His (Houghton's) contribution to the progress of Indian football has been immense in the last four years," Mondal said. "We have been getting maximum international exposure and played about a dozen friendly matches in the last four years."

Houghton is preparing the Indian team for the Asian Cup which kicks off in Qatar in January.

India are grouped with Australia, South Korea and Bahrain in Group C of the competition.