Nonthaburi FC 3 Samut Prakan Utd 0

Whoever on the Nonthaburi FC side struck the deal with MTU to act as a  nursery club is responsible for a huge turnaround at the club.

Toni lines up a volley

It’s not just on-pitch performances that have changed. The crowd at this game was the largest I’ve seen and though the vast majority were in Eka colours, there were Phuket FC and plenty of Muangthong shirts, too. The substitutes wore MTU training tops and the whole set-up has a slightly larger feel to it.

But it’s the pitch that counts and without taking any credit away from a good team performance, there’s no doubt which players made the difference today. SP Utd actually made the brighter start and crafted several good chances but once the Nonthaburi attacking line got started, they ran the show. Jorrin John made a powerful run to set up Alassane for the first goal, Tomi latched on to a superb through ball for the second and Eka’s third goal came again from Alassane after a great run and cross from Nathagun (another MTU youth player) and a lovely little touch from Toni.

Jorrin John - Not easy to shake off the ball

In the second half the side sat back a little though even when SP Utd had chances, they took them very poorly. Towards the end of the game there were incidents that have been edited out in the video below, there were two scuffles in injury time which then sparked one of the most hilarious ‘rage off’ competitions between two coaches I’ve ever seen. Both sets of fans behaved impeccably throughout.

This is the first season ever that Eka have looked likely to score more than once in a game. The distribution and intelligence in the play of the squad has also improved and it would be wrong to give sole credit to the MTU imports of Toni, Alassane and John, but they are certainly the catalyst.

Samut Parakan overcame us with ease last season and were level with us before this game.  This time they were dispatched with relative ease in a ten minute spell of the best attacking football I’ve seen at RL level. At the start of the season I said that Nonthaburi fans would be happy just to have a team, and anything else would be a bonus. This is one heck of a bonus.
Photo credits: Nhong Tim