Army Utd 3-4 Chonburi - Match Report: 2011

TPL

Army Utd 3-4 Chonburi

Royal Thai Army Stadium

Attendance: 11,323

Saturday 25th June, 2011

ARMY UTD 3-4 CHONBURI

by Malcolm Imray

Army United lost by the odd goal in 7 in a thrilling match against Chonburi at the Royal Thai Army Stadium.

The Chonburi Sharks are always good value for money to watch and tonight they deserved the 3 points.

First blood went to Army Utd when Leandro nipped in between 2 defenders to poke a cross into the net. Ney Fabiano levelled a few minutes later with a header.

After that, the Sharks forced several corners but failed to convert any of them.

Chonburi took command of the game with 2 goals either side of half-time. The first was scored by Suree after a trade mark run from right back. He latched onto a through ball and rounded the keeper to give the away side a 2-1 lead at the break. Pipob headed the third just after the interval to move Chonburi into pole position. 

The game looked to be petering out to a 3-1 win for Chonburi. That changed when second half substitute, Madengue Emmanual, scored with a header to reduce the deficit with 20 minutes left on the clock.

The Sharks were holding on to their lead pretty comfortably but there was always the feeling that the Army could nick an equalizer. However, the game was put to bed on the stroke of 90 minutes when Anucha beat the offside trap to score a fourth.

Leandro scored a penalty with virtually the last kick of the game to add some respectability to the result for the home side. That goal means he is now joint TPL scorer along with Bangkok Glass' Sarayoot.

The official attendance was announced as 11,328. In my opinion that was very generous as I thought there were only about 6,000 present tonight. 

Last season, the Army were doing well to get a tenth of that figure. It's great to see support for TPL teams increasing, but I wish that the new breed of Army fans would realize that the game kicks off at 6pm. Many of them were still wandering into the stadium 20 or 30 minutes into the game. The Chonburi fans made the 90 km journey and could still make it on time for kick off.