Thai League 2 2022-2023
Saturday 18 March 2023 – 17.30pm
Trat FC 1 Chiang Mai FC 0
Chiang Mai FC:
Fahas
Sarawin
Sarawut
Filipovic
Piyachanok
Saharat Posri
Srithai
Im ChangKyoon
Yuta Hirayama
Kim BoYong
Thammayut
Trat moved to the top of the M150 Championship with a comfortable 1-0 win over Chiang Mai FC this evening. The goal coming from their Egyptian forward, Essameldin, after 64 minutes.
This was Trat’s sixth successive win; a sequence in which they have conceded just a solitary goal.
A few initial observations – Trat is a very long way to travel; the away fans’ zone is bird crap central; and the pitch is presumably used on non-match days for cattle grazing. It is poor.
CMFC gave a second start to Yuta Hirayama and reverted to a 3-5-2.
Trat look a very settled side and their foreign front three played with strength, pace and confidence.
The surprise of the night was that the score was still 0-0 at half time. Piyachanok had been outstanding at the back and he and Filipovic had hung on – sometimes literally – to keep CMFC in the contest.
Chiang Mai’s best chance of the half fell to Hirayama in the sixth minute. A free kick was played wide for Sarawin to cross to the edge of the penalty area; replicating his leap in the derby, Filipovic headed the ball down for Hirayama in space ahead of Chiraphong. Falling he could not get any power into his left foot shot as he tried to hook it on goal.
Filipovic was then booked for pulling back Dos Santos as he ran onto a ball behind the Chiang Mai defense. The yellow card might easily have been a red.
The chances kept coming for the home side; A long diagonal ball found Valdo inside the Chiang Mai penalty area; his first time shot was well saved by Fahas diving low to his right.
Breaking down another Trat attack CMFC moved the ball quickly forward for Kim BoYong; with Hirayama unmarked in space on his left Kim instead ran into a wall of defenders and eventually dragged the ball wide from a tight angle.
Dos Santos shot wide; a Pornpreecha cross from the left evaded Katano and Essameldin. Fahas intercepted a clever interchange of passes between Dos Santos and Valdo; Essameldin shot wide and then into injury time his cross from the goal line left Dos Santos stretching just too far to turn the ball home.
One half chance in injury time for CMFC saw Im ChangKyoon and KimBoYong combine to set up Hirayama on the right of the penalty area. Once again he failed to make a solid connection and the ball rolled to Sappawat in the Trat goal.
Pongrawit and Tawan replaced Hirayama and Thammayut for the second half. But the pattern of the game was little changed.
A Dos Santos shot was parried away by Fahas.
Pharadon released Dos Santos down the left side. His chipped cross found Essameldin creating space behing Sarawut near the back post and he headed home for the only goal of the game.
Two minutes later Valdo made some space on the edge of the CMFC area and his powerful shot was met by Fahas with a fine diving save to his left.
One chance for CMFC as Tawan met Sarawut’s cross from the left but headed the ball over the crossbar.
Even moving Filiopvic up front had little impact on the outcome.
Trat attacked with pace and vigour. Too often Chiang Mai were plodding their way forward through a series of dead ends and u turns. The single goal defeat rather CMFC. It was always going to be a difficult night for the visitors.
The good news is that players, staff and supporters now get a break until our next home game against Rajpracha on 29 March.