by Ian Alexander
It was midway through the 2004 season that I was finally persuaded to visit the Princess Srindhorn Stadium for my first ever Thai League match and an introduction to the mighty Chonburi Sharks. Kick off in those days was always at 4pm on a Sunday and, after a particularly heavy night in town, I nearly managed to talk myself out of the twenty mile bus journey to Sri Racha. I also had to contend with the disdainful comments of my (English) girlfriend of the time, who could not understand why I would want to watch Thai football.
But I put all these doubts aside and took the first step on the road to a beautiful and lasting friendship. On arrival at Robinsons I met Dale and we purchased the necessary supplies of beer and crisps. We made our way to the ground on foot and I was filled in with a few important details such as players to look out for, where we were in the league, who the opponents were and what colour we played in. Inside the stadium we found two seats, without too much trouble, and settled down for a fantastic afternoon’s entertainment.
I remember the football to be exciting, if a little naïve, and the result of the first match I saw was a comfortable 3-2 victory over Suphanburi. Being a life time Southampton supporter, this was a new and happy experience for me. The bug was caught and I became a Srindhorn regular. In those days, the average crowd must have been about 80-100 people, mostly students and teachers from the college, with the odd member of the public thrown in for good measure.
One of my abiding memories of those early days is of the old lady who used to sit behind us shouting 'bang born' throughout the match - the only person who was at all vocal in their support, the rest just sat around applauding politely at various intervals. I saw three or four more games that season and thoroughly enjoyed them all. The following season was my first full season as a bona fide Sharks fan and it was also the year that Chonburi won the Thai Provincial League.
We won most of our matches that season, as we vied for the top spot with the reigning champions, Suphanburi, right up until the last game, when we were sitting in second place. Dale and I were among the twenty or so Chonburi fans who made the long journey to Nakorn Rachisima for the deciding match of the season. Although this was more in hope than expectation until we found out that Suphanburi had had points deducted during the preceding week. Neither of us were really sure why but we now knew that a win would guarantee us the title.
The team duly obliged and we celebrated with a very swift pint before starting out on the long trek home. Another lasting memory from the 2005 season was when we turned up at the usual time on the Sunday, only to find an empty stadium. The match had been played the day before, seemingly without telling anyone about this change of date. Following Thai football was never dull. I now live and work in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, but still consider myself a supporter of Chonburi and usually make it to 2 or 3 matches a season whenever I am able to get back to Thailand.
The difference in the crowd, size, atmosphere and the much more professional approach is a world away from those early days when we would joke about such things, whilst sitting on the terraces with a few enthusiastic Thais, a few Changs and many opinions. Oh, and I still have my original red Chonburi home shirt from the championship winning season.
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