Last Sunday Pattaya United visited Bangkok United’s Thammasat Stadium for a Thai Premier League Fixture against a side in good form. The previous midweek fixtures had seen Bangkok win impressively away at Chonburi FC whilst Pattaya had sunk to a disappointing defeat at home against Suphanburi.
Pattaya started last Sunday’s match full of confidence and enjoyed a good deal of possession of the ball and created a number of good opportunities that were sadly wasted. This proved costly as momentum swung back to the home team when they took the lead in the 20th minute through Dragan Boskovic. Naive Pattaya defending left them susceptible to a quick break and the Bangkok striker had all the time in the world to stroke the ball into the net.
In the 22nd minute Bangkok doubled their lead when for some strange reason Pattaya keeper Patiwat Khammai decided to rugby tackle opposition forward Gilberto Macena as he was heading away from the goal. This was the second goal costing error the young Pattaya keeper has made in the last 3 games and his mistakes are currently a luxury that the free falling Pattaya side can ill afford.
Having converted the subsequent penalty the game was virtually put out of reach in the 40th minute when Montenegro striker Boskovic completed his first half hat trick, and his second in as many games. Once again the goal came from Bangkok’s dangerous attack taking full advantage of Pattaya’s lack-luster and static defending.
The second half started more brightly for Pattaya as Wellington Priori was bundled to the ground in the Bangkok penalty area and captain Won Young Lee converted the spot kick at the second attempt, after his first effort was well saved.
Despite getting an early goal back the second half then followed a similar pattern to the first, with Pattaya always looking dangerous on the ball, yet dreadful without it. Wellington Priori was having one of his most influential games and he had at least 6 attempts at goal by himself. This included a spectacular strike in the first half that struck the underside of the Bangkok crossbar but somehow stayed out.
Pattaya finished the game by gifting Dragan Boskovic two more goals, which he converted with great aplomb to give him the record of the most goals scored by an individual player in a Thai Premier League fixture.
In all fairness the 5-1 score line does not reflect the closeness of this encounter and the stats show that Pattaya managed 15 attempts on goal compared to the home side’s 14 more productive efforts. However, unless Pattaya start to learn the lessons from these defeats it is going to become a really tough 2017 campaign. The side as a unit needs to react quicker in defensive situations and the defenders as individuals must work harder to stop opposition strikers from scoring.
Pattaya United’s next Premier League fixture is on Friday, April 28 at home to Navy FC. Kick-off at the Nongprue Stadium in Pattaya is scheduled for 8 p.m.
