by Dale Farrington
When Peter Reid was officially announced as the coach of the Thailand national team in September, 2008, I was lucky enough to be at the press conference. And even luckier to get the opportunity to speak with him afterwards. He was very interested in my connection to Thai football and we exchanged phone numbers. For the next few weeks we would regularly chat, as he sought information on various players and fixture details.
Once the season was over, we continued communicating and I kept him up to date with the fitness of the Chonburi squad and the plethora of friendly matches that had been organised. One such game was due to take place at the IPE Stadium on a Sunday afternoon in February.
Peter would be travelling from Bangkok with his backroom staff - Steve Darby and Terry Dempsey - so the call was made and we arranged to meet outside the ground half an hour before kick off. I made sure that I was there in good time, as I also wanted to let the club management know that we would have VIP guests in attendance. However, when I arrived the place was deserted. This wasn't a good sign.
In something of a mild panic, I phoned my wife to see if she could find out what was going on. I was dreading the possibility that the match had been cancelled. How would I explain that to the Thailand coaches?
Fortunately, my better half was able to contact someone who knew what was happening. Apparently, the venue had been switched at the last minute and the match would now be played across town at the OBJ Stadium (which would later become Chonburi Stadium, our current home ground).
When my visitors arrived, I hesitantly explained the situation and apologised for the inconvenience. To my relief, they weren't at all annoyed or bothered and found the whole thing extremely amusing.
There then followed a mad dash from one side of Chonburi to the other, as the official FAT driver attempted to keep up with my "Steve McQueen in the Great Escape" motorcycle riding skills, in order to get there in time for the start. Luckily, the kick off had been delayed (surprise, surprise!) so we made it with quite a few minutes to spare. This delay also meant that my parents - who had made their own way up to the 'right' ground - got the chance to speak with Peter, Steve and Terry.
Following a few reminiscences and tales of football in 'the old days', I introduced my visitors to the club hierarchy and they were ushered off to the best seats in the house in order to enjoy the early evening entertainment. Meanwhile, I snook off on my own, to get a couple of well earned beers!
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