Monday, November 28, 2011

Weekend Review 26-27 November

TPL
Sriracha 1-1 Osotspa
Police 0-0 Pattaya
BEC Tero 2-2 Muangthong
Sisaket 0-1 Thai Port
Army 2-0 TTM Phichit
Chiang Rai 2-2 Bangkok Glass
Navy 0-1 Buriram PEA
Khon Kaen 0-2 Chonburi

None of the six Bangkok TPL sides in action lost this weekend. I’m sure five out of the six of them would have been satisfied with this outcome. The exception is of course Muangthong United. Fowler’s side were leading 2-1 until Jakkrit equalized for Tero in the 95th minute. Those two dropped points have all but killed of any title hopes MTU had as they now sit in third place 13 points behind Buriram PEA. Bangkok Glass would have been chipper after salvaging a late point up in Chiang Rai and likewise Police United won’t be disappointed with a draw against inform Pattaya in Suphanburi. It’s been a fine week for Army United. They followed up their point at Muangthong last Tuesday with a 2-0 victory over TTM Phichit. The Thai Port players’ train journey up to Sisaket was a successful venture as they left Issan with 3 points. If coach Thongchai is superstitious and sees rail travel as a lucky omen, he might send his Port players on a subway journey before next Sunday’s home game against Chiang Rai United.

Division 1
Chantaburi 2-1 Suphanburi
Saraburi 2-2 Phuket
Chiang Mai 1-1 Bkk Utd
Customs 1-0 BBCU
Thai Honda 0-1 JW Rangsit
Bangkok FC 1-1 RBAC
PTT Rayong 5-0 Songkla

BBCU must be thankful for their excellent start to the season as their stuttering form of late continued with a 1-0 loss at Customs. It was a precious victory for the Samut Prakarn side as they moved above Bangkok FC into 14th spot after the Bulligans were held to a 1-1 draw by RBAC. RBAC remain third bottom as Chiang Mai failed to beat Bangkok United and Thai Honda lost a fiery contest against JW Rangsit 1-0. The team from Rangsit also won the red card count 2-1 as three players were dismissed. 

Division 2 Play-offs
(Group A) (Sat)
Kasetsart 2-3 Phitsanoluk
Phichit 1-1 Loei City
Pattalung 0-0 Ratchaburi

(Group B) (Sun)
North Bkk 1-2 Krabi
Roi Et 2-1 Rayong
Korat 1-0 Lamphun

Phitsanoluk were the only team to win in Group A on Saturday. They kept their outside chance of promotion alive as they won 3-2 at Kasetsart. That win moves them above Loei City into 3rd place. The top 2 of Pattalung and Ratchaburi drew 0-0 with each other.

In Group B, Rayong were the big losers this weekend as they lost 2-1 at Roi Et while Krabi and Korat won. Table toppers, Krabi, had to come from behind to beat North Bangkok 2-1 at the Thephasadin. Korat left it very, very, very late against the Lamphun Warriors. Their 89th minute winner in the 1-0 victory was scored at about 9.30 pm because the 6pm kick-off was delayed for 90 minutes due to a floodlight failure which started during the playing of the national anthem.

Latest Standings: (7 Games)
Group A - Pattalung 14, Ratchaburi 13, Phitsanoluk 10, Loei 9, Phichit 7, Kasetsart 4
Group B - Krabi 17, Korat 13, Rayong 11, Roi Et 9, Nth Bkk 5, Lamphun 3

5 comments:

  1. Our result was never in doubt!!! Another weekend; another 100 grey hairs on my head. Had the match been abandoned I'm pretty sure Lamphun would have been awarded the three points and out play-off hopes would have taken a major hit. The lights come back on and we're all expecting a wound-up Korat to rip into their struggling opponents...but, of course, no. This is Korat so let's just gently roll the ball around in midfield as if it's the first pre-season friendly of the year. The team is capable of so much more but is constantly held back by the coach's negativity. I know that he doesn't want to concede and that defeat would have been a disaster, but a draw wouldn't have been much better. Still, DESPITE the coach we still manged to win. A point at Krabi would be hugely helpful because neither Korat nor Rayong should be looking at North Bangkok as a banker: if they're good enough to beat Roiet away then they're good enough to beat us.

    On the plus side, Rayong just don't know when to shut up. As if their antics last week weren't enough to inspire us, their coach has now come out and said that two wins from their final three games (total of 17 points) will be enough for them to go up. Now, we're on 13 points; if we both finish on 17 then we'll go up on head to head. So their coach is basically saying that we're not going to take more than three points from our final three games (unless for some reason he's only expecting Krabi to take one or no points from their final three). If we go up we should dedicate our triumph to the motivation provided by the Rayong coach, players and fans.

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  2. It's never a straight forward game with Korat. There seems to be a habit of non football stories grabbing the headlines lately.

    I think you can judge your coach once this is all over. If you're promoted, you'll forgive his negative tactics. The Thai Swatcat fans will probably blame everybody else except the coach if you fail. It's always the fault of the ref, the cheating opposition or the horoscope.

    Krabi scored their winner at Nth Bkk in the 95th minute. As you said, they won't be a push over for Korat and Rayong.

    The Rayong coach has made a bold statement. Even Roi Et can still finish on 18 points if they win their last 3 games!!

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  3. Exactly, and just to clarify, the Rayong coach did actually say "six points" not "two wins" so it's not as if he was thinking of two wins and a draw.

    I know what you mean about the coach, and it's mainly me being a typical moaning British football fan (we've already had the best season in our history no matter what happens in the next 3 games) but I just don't like the way he plays. I'm not saying that he's useless or should be sacked, and I'm not calling for cavalier, gung-ho, Spurs-under-Ardiles football, but we play with such a deep midfield and we're so slow to get forward. And three or four Korat players in the centre circle when WE'VE got a corner is the norm. He's so risk-averse he should have been an actuary!

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  4. Just looking at Group A, Phitsanoluk have snuck back into the promotion picture. They've got Phichit at home this weekend, followed by a massive game against Ratchaburi at home. Pattalung's next 2 games are up north against Loei and Phichit.

    It looks to me that both groups will go right down to the wire. Korat v Roi Et and Krabi v Rayong on the final day. It's gonna be an exciting climax to the play-offs.

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  5. To be honest, I'll be happy if our destiny is in our hands come the final day. It's too much to hope that we'll be up after matchday 9: we'd have to win the next two and hope other results go our way: not going to happen.
    I'm strangely confident though; that was a big weekend. It means that seven points will guarantee us promotion no matter what Rayong or Roiet do, but I don't think we'll need 20 points. I'm sure 18 will be enough, which means two draws and a win. We should be able to achieve that.

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