26/10/14 TPL
Chonburi v Bangkok Utd
Match preview by John Lees
For the first time this season, we’ve hit the top of the league and the destiny of the title is in our own hands. Bangkok United are in town on Sunday hoping to spoil the party.
Last time we met, we lost 2-0 to a then struggling side and that Sunday night was debatably the lowest point of our season. Losing two goals in injury time after a tepid performance just rubbed salts into our wounds.
Since the appointment of their third coach of the season, Mano Poking, the Bangkok Angels have vastly improved. When he took over, the team was massively underachieving considering their outlay on players and, they were firmly in a relegation battle. Now they are safely in mid-table after taking 29 points from 16 matches in Leg 2. However, those statistics paper over poor away form. BU have failed to win any of their last six away trips and have only gathered three points out of a possible 18.
On Wednesday evening, Romain Gasmi’s brace against Buriram United moved him onto ten goals for the season. He is the main playmaker and when he is on form, he can be a right handful. The starting XI that night were: Warut Mekmusik, Mika Chunuonsee, Kim Yoo Jin, Noppol Pitafai, Wichaya Dechmitr, Wittaya Madlam, Anthony Ampaipitakwong, Milos Bogunovic, Ekkachai Sumrei, Romain Gasmi, Mike Temwanjera.
By all accounts our title rivals Buriam United were extremely poor on Wednesday evening at the Thai Japanese but they should bounce back with a home fixture against Chainat. After that, they have a very winnable match at TOT before hosting Police United on the final day.
26/10/14 TPL
Chonburi v Bangkok Utd
Match preview by Mystic Brian
With just three games remaining, and for the first time this season, we are top of the league and the title is in our hands. Win those three games and we are Champions. With both us and Buriram having two home and one away match remaining it'll be down to who keeps their nerve the better. And so far, with a LWW sequence against Buriram's WDL since the shutdown, that's been us.
While still not reaching the height and quality of football we played before the enforced shutdown we just about did enough to beat an Osotspa team that likes to play good football and gave us a real test. And when our webmaster's wife phoned to confirm Bangkok Utd were winning 1-0 our journey home was even sweeter. When my phone rang again at our traditional Burger King stopover to confirm Bangkok Utd had gone 2-0 up our night was complete. I'm convinced the realization that we could now win the league had put our webmaster into total shock.
But hopefully everybody's feet are now firmly back on the ground. Wednesday was a great result but it also showed everybody that Bangkok Utd are now a competent team that cannot be taken lightly. Although their away form doesn't match their home efforts their confidence will be high, so we'll have to be at our best and concentrate for the full ninety minutes. We've simply got to get a win to keep the pressure on so for the second game running we've got to do better than Buriram did against the same opposition. And I believe we can do just that.
We have performed reasonably well so far under pressure and are still creating several chances in each game while restricting the opposition to very little. With (hopefully) a sell out crowd to cheer the team on we can convert a couple of those chances and go on to win 2-0.
Mystic Brian’s prediction: Chonburi 2-0 Bangkok Utd
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