Toyota League Cup football had come to Takiab Stadium again, and this was the furthest Hua Hin City had ever progressed in the competition. Today’s opposition were by far the best football team Hua Hin City had ever faced in a competitive match. The stage was set for a cracking game of football.
Hua Hin City had failed to capitalize on what should have been a bumper box office event, and unfortunately the crowd was pretty average.
Maraba was still injured, and the club had been struck down by a usual post Songkran fever. This was a virulent fever, which really drained the life out of players. How many affected players were on the pitch, I don’t know, but a few played well below par on the day.
Krit started between the sticks. I am not a fan of any of our keepers, but he was having a fantastic game before he was carried off on a stretcher. Of note, he made a fantastic double save in a one on one situation followed in quick succession with a masterful dive at full stretch to his left to prevent another goal bound shot.
In defence, we had twin central generals Songkran and Win in the middle. Zola at left back played one of his best games yet, and was in action a lot. He didn’t wander off in search of glory as is his usual trait. Our captain, Jiradech had a lot of involvement, but with little success. At one stage he took his frustrations out on one of his team mates, which was not very professional. This fit of anger must have delighted the opposition, because they had openly seen a weak link in the armour.
In midfield, Tossapon was well off his game – he is one of my favourites, so I can only put it down to fever. Panudach was sprightly on his feet, but the Sisaket experience often thwarted him. Samy was all over the field, but also his efforts were often thwarted. Nattawut has so much potential, but gets excited if he gets the ball within 40 yards of goal. He has this unstoppable urge to shoot, but I’ve never seen him get a shot on target yet. He lets his team mates, who are in much better positions down every time.
Nicolas was very strong against the better opposition. Several times he rode 2 or 3 bone crunching tackles and came away with the ball. Unfortunately, he never had any support. The one occasion he did have support, he mis-kicked what should have been a defence splitting pass to Panudach. However, for me, he was our strongest player on the pitch today. Feli was playing just behind Nicolas. Between them, they were creating multiple problems for the Sisaket defence. It was probably quite a relief when Hua Hin replaced Feli early on. The only logical reason could have been to dampen his confidence.
Sisaket always looked the stronger team, and on average must have been 6” taller than their lower league hosts. Krit prevented several certain goals, before Sisaket eventually made the breakthrough.
A goal down, Hua Hin management made their first big mistake. Feli was replaced by Arnon. Feli was by no means Hua Hin’s best player, but he was making a menace of himself. Yes, bring Arnon on, but there were 3 very ineffective Hua Hin players (fever victims) on that pitch throughout the 90 minutes. Arnon should have replaced one of those, and left our only big man up front. Had Hua Hin’s ball crossing been up to standard, maybe Feli or Arnon could have got a head to the ball, but as it was, the ball was either straight to the keeper, or our players would have needed springs on their boots. Many free kicks were very poor as well.
The next unfortunate incident was poor Krit getting injured. He was replaced by Natchapon, who is a great shot stopper, but lacks a few inches.
The final nail in the coffin was Nicolas being substituted. 2 goals down and you replace your striker with a midfielder – where is the logic? This left Arnon as a lone striker, trying to claw back a 2 goal deficit. We have seen many times that Arnon as a lone striker does not work. Nicolas’ replacement, David runs about a lot, but makes no impact – when the ball gets forward to him, he either loses it or the ball is passed backwards.
This final substitution was boxing’s equivalent of throwing in the towel, and marked a mass exodus from the ground. The left hand side of the grandstand emptied, as did much of Zone B.
I don’t think anybody expected Hua Hin to win this game, but to throw in the towel at 2 – 0 is not acceptable. Of course, we don’t know how much the virus affected the play. Hopefully, everybody will be back to full fitness for Sunday’s game Chainat Utd.
