Bangkok Casuals Football League Div 1 & 2
The two Pattaya City teams were once again on their travels last weekend to make the trip to Bangkok for the second week running. The first team played Cosmos, who are lying in the mid-table of Div 1 and this is always a game of high drama and high standards. This proved to be the case again as the two teams battled to gain the upper hand, but with both defenses up to the mark it took 15 minutes before a shot was made.
Soon after, City’s Tshuma made a superb run which was ended when he was brought down in the area and the referee pointed to the spot. The penalty was converted by City’s top scorer Earnest Dipita to put City in the lead. This goal brought confidence to the Pattaya players and they started to put heavy pressure on the Cosmos defense which resulted in the Cosmos keeper fumbling the ball and centre forward Alexsei Ivanov pouncing to tap the ball home and make it 2-0.
Cosmos had a golden chance to get back into the match when their centre forward was put clean through, but after rounding the City keeper he somehow managed to put the ball wide of the open goal. It was a let-off for City but they were not so fortunate soon after when Cosmos took advantage of a static Pattaya defense to cut the arrears to just one goal going into the break.
City came out firing in the second half and another dazzling run by Tshuma saw the ball fed to Earnest Dipita who made no mistake to make it 3-1 to City.
Cosmos replied with a shot that hit the City bar and then forced a good save out of the Pattaya keeper as they tried to get back into the game, but it was City’s livewire Dipita who made the next telling blow as he received the ball from Tshuma to make it 4-1. With the clock running down there was just enough time for Cosmos to grab a consolation goal and make the score 4-2 at the final whistle.
City showed their best form for a long time in this match but they will have to maintain this standard if they are to have any chance of winning the overall championship.
Meanwhile on the same weekend, the Pattaya City Reserves needed to win their match against Triumph Masters to regain some confidence following their mauling by the league leaders in their previous game.
City had the first chance when O’Callaghan’s shot went just the wrong side of the post but they followed this up almost immediately by opening the scoring. The Masters keeper’s wayward throw went straight to City’s Glen Wilkins who tapped the ball home to give the Pattaya team the lead.
City could have gone further ahead but Glen Wilkins’ shot went over the bar with only the keeper to beat however his namesake made no mistake soon after as Brian Wilkins scored with a rasping volley to make it 2-0, which was the half time score.
After half time the Reserves took the game to the Masters and a couple of shots from centre forward Chris Burt hit the bar and post with the ball being scrambled clear on both occasions. They were unable to add to their scoring however and the game concluded with the City Reserves claiming a well deserved 2-0 win.
Note: If there is anybody who is interested in playing and would like to join the club, please ring Rick on 086 150 8799.
