Chainat 1-1 Chonburi - Match Report: 2014

Brian Enever's report from the day a linesman's flag, and many other "odd" decisions, cost us the TPL title.

TPL 

Chainat 1-1 Chonburi

29th October, 2014

Linesman Suchart Fangmala

Match Report

by Brian Enever

First of all I think Wada picked the wrong team to start. Nurul is a very tricky player who is at his best attacking  defenders and driving into the box from wide areas. It's from these areas his close control either wins free kicks or forces defenders into backing off, giving him the opportunity to create chances. BUT, a striker he is not. He doesn't (yet) have the ability and movement off the ball to pull defenders out of position to create space for himself or others. 

For the first hour or so, until Pibob came on, it was all too easy for the Chainat defence. We did create one or two half chances but generally both defences were in control. Pibob may be a yard slower these days but his movement and experience did start to cause Chainat problems and we started to get on top. 

After Nurul scored we just needed to take control of the ball, not do anything stupid and see the game out. But once again we showed we were not capable of keeping our shape and just doing the basics. 

Leading up to their equalizer, first of all Nattaphong failed to track back quickly enough meaning Jackie was pulled out of the centre having to close down their winger, then, as the ball was worked back across the middle Chonlatit just stood ball watching while the Chainat player had all the time he needed to score.

We pushed forward in search of a winner while Chainat chose to waste as much time as possible. 'Injuries' (?) to both their recognised goalkeepers meant extensive delays (even an ambulance was brought onto the pitch at one point), resulting in an outfield player having to play in goal for them and a total of some twenty minutes of injury time to play. 

Half way through that injury time a Chakrit cross was met perfectly by Dos Santos but the goal was disallowed for 'offside'. An absolutely crazy decision. I was directly in line with Dos Santos and he was at least a yard on side (and [probably more) when the ball was kicked. It wasn't even close and impossible to say the linesman could have 'made a mistake'.

There had been quite a few questionable decisions going Chainat's way throughout the game but what happened next , for me, proves the officials had been got at. A few seconds after the disallowed  'goal' the referee blew for full time, even though there must have been at least ten minutes left to play.

I have seen 'questionable' decisions from officials in the past but, I believe, this was corruption at its very worst. I don't know what can be done about the result but if the officials’ actions are 'swept under the carpet' it will prove for me just how corrupt the FAT and TPL officials really are.

Postscript

REFEREE & LINESMAN HIT WITH LENGTHY BANS

6th November, 2014

 

Two of the officials at the recent Chainat v Chonburi TPL match have been hit with lengthy bans by the local governing body. Referee Chaya Mahaprab has been banned from officiating for 18 months and linesman Suchart Fangmala (pictured) has been given a 2 year holiday.

 

Both men were responsible for some controversial decisions at the game on October 29th. Most notably failing to play the expected amount of injury time, not issuing a second yellow card to a Chainat player for a bookable offence and ruling out a late Chonburi goal for "offside".