TPL
Samut Songkhram 1-0 Chonburi
Samut Songkhram Municipal Stadium
Attendance: 1,850
Saturday 28th July, 2012
Match report
FARCE!
What an absolute farce this was. The pitch at Samut Songkhram yesterday was a disgrace. And what is even more annoying is that the host club made no attempt at all to make it playable. It was obvious to anyone that the torrential downpour that started at 2:30pm would affect the surface and the groundstaff should have been prepared. However, as the players came out to warm up we had two men, one with a brush and one with a bucket, "working" on a small area inside the centre circle. Why weren't there many more trying to drain the water away in others parts of the pitch that were clearly in a worse state?
Why wasn't the kick off delayed in order to give them time to do this? What did the referee see when he made his pitch inspection? Did he even make a pitch inspection? Even from my vantage point - which incidentally must be one of the worst in the TPL - I could see that the ground wasn't fit. Still, we kicked off, on time, in a quagmire.
Playing football was virtually impossible, as players fell over and the ball either skidded along the wet grass or stopped dead in one of the many puddles that littered the ground. The referee made no allowances for the conditions and dished out yellow cards for offences that had more to do with the surface than malice from the players.
At half time we expected a small army of people to come on the pitch armed with forks, brushes and buckets, but not a single person ventured forth. Surely the referee must take a lot of the blame here for not insisting that the home officials worked to improve the conditions. Even one of the official photographers said that the game should be abandoned and that it was more like watching water polo.
The second half progressed in much the same way as the first. Lots of splashing about and falling over. Great if you'd paid to watch a circus but not so satisfying for those of us who came to watch a game of football in the Thai PREMIER League.
Playing football was virtually impossible, as players fell over and the ball either skidded along the wet grass or stopped dead in one of the many puddles that littered the ground. The referee made no allowances for the conditions and dished out yellow cards for offences that had more to do with the surface than malice from the players.
At half time we expected a small army of people to come on the pitch armed with forks, brushes and buckets, but not a single person ventured forth. Surely the referee must take a lot of the blame here for not insisting that the home officials worked to improve the conditions. Even one of the official photographers said that the game should be abandoned and that it was more like watching water polo.
The second half progressed in much the same way as the first. Lots of splashing about and falling over. Great if you'd paid to watch a circus but not so satisfying for those of us who came to watch a game of football in the Thai PREMIER League.
Suttinun received our first red card of the season and Sinthaweechai conceded a penalty in injury time to give the home side a win. Tellingly, at the final whistle, our players came over to applaud the away support - which made up about half of the overall attendance - but completely ignored the home fans and the home bench. The first time I've seen this happen.
I went onto the ground after the match and, believe me, it looked even worse than it did from the stands. The water was ankle deep in some places and these areas accounted for a large part of the playing surface. I really hope that we have made an official complaint about the conditions we had to play in and that Samut Songkhram are hit by a big fine for a sub-standard pitch. But I'm not holding my breath.
I went onto the ground after the match and, believe me, it looked even worse than it did from the stands. The water was ankle deep in some places and these areas accounted for a large part of the playing surface. I really hope that we have made an official complaint about the conditions we had to play in and that Samut Songkhram are hit by a big fine for a sub-standard pitch. But I'm not holding my breath.
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