UHT Vana Nava Hua Hin City FC 2015

[Big Boy]

In red again

For once we're almost in agreement with each other over the game, not too many differing opinions.

I seem to be the only one who thinks we have any chance whatsoever of still reaching the Champions League though. I'm still realistic enough to admit and realise that it is a very slim chance though.
No, you are right to be optimistic - Phetburi came from nowhere last season to snatch runners up place on the last day. Personally, I'll enjoy the football for a couple of weeks, and see how it looks in early September. I'll decide then whether or not to get excited.

The most disappointing part for me is the fact that; from my previous post's scenarios:

Hua Hin win all 5(seems a big ask at the min, but let's just say we do)

Seemok + Tonburi would each have to lose 2 of their last 5. In fact Tonburi have to lose 1 of their next 4, as going by my first assumption, Hua Hin will beat Tonburi in the last game of the season.

The most unlikely scenario of the 3 teams mentioned is in fact Hua Hin winning all 5! It really would not surprise me in the least for Seemok and Tonburi to lose 2 of their last 5 but based on how the team are playing of late, I've a feeling we will drop more points before the end of the season.
Yes, even before Samut Sakhon I'd convinced myself that we were going to win every game until the end of the season. Anything else was unthinkable. That's probably why I've taken it so hard.

Going back to yesterday's performance for a minute, it is worth pointing out that we were in fact unlucky not to win the game. Despite everything negative that's been said, we very nearly scored 6 goals. Keeper made a couple of excellent saves, one in particular from Byrne. As has been mentioned Byrne hit the woodwork twice, on another day those efforts would have squeezed in...... We had 2 goals chopped off, ok I agree the offside was the right call, but the one Andre stabbed in after their defender getting in the keepers road, I think that should have stood.
I agree. Once Michael Byrne came on, the match was transformed, and he was on fire. His team mates gave him excellent service, and he repaid that with some incredible marksmanship. I agree about the first disallowed goal 0 I couldn't see anything wrong with it - a shame it wasn't in the highlights.

[Big Boy]

[Geordie Dancer]

I visited the new ground again today as I have many times in recent weeks. It is virtually complete now and looking very good. Today all the roads and car/bike parking were being tarmac'd and there only appears to be tidying up and a few fitting out jobs left to do. The pitch was being watered again and the grass looks to have taken very well. It still needs a substancial amount of rolling and dressing to get it flat and level so we have a good surface to play on next season. After yesterdays result the readiness date of early October no longer has any relevance so the "ground staff" have almost six months to get the playing surface right for next season.

One thing that does concern me is the seating on the concrete stand side of the ground. Virtually all the seating, both in the clip together temporary seating and that in the stand itself, appears to have an impaired view of parts of the pitch. I can not be 100% certain as I have not sat in the stand or on the temporary seating but you definitely can not see all the pitch from the majority of the temporary seating on the stand side of the pitch. A major design flaw. All the temporary seating on the stand side of the ground needs to be brought closer to the pitch and raised in height. Fortunately the nature of this seating would allow this to happen quite easily. Hope someone realises before we play our first game there.

[Big Boy]

I'll be posting my video later, when uploaded to You Tube. because they were tarmacking where I usually go I went down the other way, and had a good mooch around. Hopefully it will illustrate what you are saying. The greenhouse in the middle of the grandstand is likely to impair vision also.

I re-visited the clip-on terracing afterwards, and there is ample space to move the seating forward.

[Big Boy]

My usual access route was blocked today, so I took another route in and had a good mooch around.

I started by walking down the side of Hua Hin Library on the road with freshly laid tarmac. As it turned out, there was fresh tarmac everywhere.

I then ventured in to the Eastern car park, and viewed the East Stand from the rear. I then got a great view of the stadium from the South East corner (I just love how straight that fence is - true Thai engineering). The pitch was looking better, but it was still quite patchy and needed considerable work still. I assume the flattening process will take place once the grass becomes more established.

I wandered up and viewed the pitch from beyond the South goal. I was now in uncharted territory for me, as I wouldn't normally wander onto a building site unescorted.

I carried on down the road to the Western car park.

It was when i viewed the stadium from the South Western corner that i realised the deliberate error. The jumbo meccano set they call seating has been constructed too far back. Much of the pitch will be hidden from the view of spectators in these seats. Further evaluation showed that there is room for these seats to be moved forward. As they currently are, they are next to useless, and I for one would not want to watch a football match from here.

The new toilet facilities look first class, and are maybe the best feature of the stadium. A lesson learned after Fort Thanarat maybe.

I sat in the meccano seating to prove my point about visibility, and I must have lost about 1/6th of the pitch.

I then wandered up into the hallowed ground of the grandstand. I was tempted to remove my clothes, but I was afraid I might upset the sacred god of football, so resisted.

the grandstand is every bit as small as I had imagined. To make things worse, the huge greenhouse that they've stuck in the middle looks as though it will also obscure the view from some of the seating. There were workmen above, so I did not venture upwards to the back of the stand for Health and Safety reasons.

The ground is taking shape, but i really hope they look at the design critically before using the stadium in anger. As it is, there are several basic problems.

[GLCQuantum]

For me the final nail was hammered into Hua Hins coffin and champions league ambitions with last weeks result. Today the job was completed with the lid slammed firmly shut and welded for good measure. Yes, mathematically, there is still a chance but in reality the season is over.

I have to say certain things worried me before the kick off and unfortunately my concerns were well founded. Questions I had asked myself about the pitch, team selection, tactics and adapting to conditions were all of major concern. I made my views known to SS prior to kick off and we both hoped that my thoughts would not come to fruition. Unfortunately they did.

Ask yourself these questions.

1. Did Hua Hin play in a way that suited the pitch conditions? NO

I watched the short video clip post on Hua Hins fb page of Saturdays training session. Immediately it was apparent that this was not a surface on which to play too much football and certainly not in your own half. Every time the ball crossed the half way line into our half it should have been pumped straight back into the opposition half. Not pretty but the only way to play on a pitch like this. The surface itself would have created chances and caused errors, as was proved to be the case, but we did not exploit this in the area's where it mattered.

1. Did Hua Hin select the right starting line up? NO

Some of the team selections could be explained by suspensions (Athit Wisetslip, Natthapong Kamaksorn), as for Dusit Nongpatum, Anaecha Masamak and Pu, I don't know whether they were injured, suspended or dropped. With our midfield so depleted Michael Byrne should have, without question, been in the starting line up. The situation was made even more gauling given that our only other proven striker and loanee, Anucha, was also sitting in the stand. Other than Lucas we had no creativity and Michael Byrne would have given us that as well as the quality, control, vision and experience which we sadly lacked.

... blah blah blah...

3. Did Hua Hin adapt to the conditions? NO, simple as!

I don't want to appear to be a "know it all", I don't have any football coaching badges but I did play football to a decent standard for nearly 30 years and have watched football for well over 50 years. The pitfalls of todays game were seen by me before a ball was kicked and I take no delight in saying so. The option of blaming the performance on the coach not being at the club this week can not be used because he was at training last week. What last weeks preparation consisted of, I don't know, I wasn't at training last week. I do rate the coach highly but as far as yesterdays performance was concerned he got many things wrong and the whole teams performance smacked of total naivety.

1. Can you count from 1 all the way through to four? NO

2. Is there any point getting worked up over a Thai team that would, more than likely, rather you (The White Devil) not be there supporting at all? NO

3. Should you start just, 'going along for the ride', and making a great day out of it, regardless of the result? YES

4. Do I wish that I could become socially involved in Thai football? YES

5. Do I understand that when I try to become involved (see number 4) like I did with Samut Sakhon FC, I am merely 'put up with' rather than accepted? YES (took me a while though)

6: Do I understand that Thais neither want to hear my opinion ...nor do they care about them? YES?

7. Do I get pissed off about numbers 2, 5 and 6? YES

[Big Boy]

UHT Vana Nava Hua Hin City 4 - 3 Army Utd U.19

I thoroughly enjoyed this friendly. I thought it might be a bit one sided with men vs boys. On the contrary, especially in the first half the Army Utd kids played some beautiful football, and the half deservedly finished 3 - 1 in favour of the kids. Hua Hin introduced a couple of their big guns in the second half and scraped a 4 - 3 victory. One sad part of the match, it looked as though Dusit picked up a significant back injury.

Photos from the game:

[Big Boy]

[Davy B]

How many attempts are they going to have to spell Thanarat correctly?

[Big Boy]

VANA NAVA HUAHIN CITY vs GRAKCU TABFAH PATHUMTANI FC.
@THANARAT FORT STADIUM 4.00PM

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[Big Boy]

How many attempts are they going to have to spell Thanarat correctly?

In fairness to Hua Hin City, they were a bit late in promoting Sunday's match. I used the advert from the Grakcu site.

[Davy B]

No surprise there then, eh. So much for keep us all informed!! It is indicated that it is a 5.30 kick off but it shows 4pm on my fixture list!! I would hate to turn up at 5.30 to find the game is finished but hey this is Thailand after all.

[Big Boy]

I'd missed the crazy KO time - thank you. I've put it in now.

[Big Boy]

UHT Vana Nava Hua Hin City 2 - 0 Gracku Tabfah Pathumthani

Away at the moment, so I'll keep this brief, and wait for the rose tinted version from the higher seats later.

A fair first half, with 2 well taken goals by Andre. I'm sure Gracku feel the halt time scoreline flattered us.

Andre went of injured, and we became a toothless tiger. If he's not there, we don't seem to have another striker. To make things worse, we went into faffing about at the back mode big time - for those who don't understand what I mean by faffing about at the back - refer to most of the 2nd half - it was abysmal. I was almost wishing for a return to kick and rush football

A welcome 3 points, but not a good match in front of what is becoming an ever diminishing crowd. Promotion is still possible, but unlikely. I'm sure our sugar daddies must be furious at having failed to buy success twice in the same season. Oh, how they must be regretting their words saying that last season's champions weren't good enough, and they were going to bring in players the likes of which the league had never seen before.

Away to Rajpracha next Sunday, 16:00 KO.

[Big Boy]

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