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| How we roll |
All photo credits: Bank Kammo
Nonthaburi entered round three (also known as the first round proper, just like the English counterpart) last Wednesday after making life a little hard.
Roi Et United took an impressive amount of fans south to Nonthaburi and roared their team on but it was the home side who drew first blood midway through the first half with a goal by Traore following a run from midfield.
The lead was extended after a goalkeeping mistake gifted Tomi a chance, but the English forward still had to keep his composure to finish and he did so.
The game should have been killed off but substitutions changed the flow of the game and Roi Et saw a lot more possession in the final thirty minutes of action, culminating in an injury time equaliser that sent the team and its fans wild.
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| Everyone got stuck in |
As with the previous round, a draw after 90 minutes meant we went straight to penalties. What with the last minute equaliser, our previous penalty win, the surrender of a two goal lead and the fact that Roi Et did not, as far as I know, have any English fans in their end all made me feel that our luck was exhausted. Yet Roi Et missed their first penalty and suddenly it all started to feel like a repeat of the previous cup game. Less so when we missed our second penalty.
From then on it was a heart-stopping, nerve-jangling collection of well-taken penalties from both sides until ...YES! Roi Et miss penalty number seven (if my memory serves me well).
And then we miss our penalty, too. It's that horrid feeling in your gut that hits you when this happens.
So here comes their next name on the list and...YEEEESSSSS! Roi Et miss penalty no.eight!
And then my favourite moment of the game. Our number 14 (Athikun) walked over to the penalty spot. Of course this was sudden death so he had not volunteered to take a penalty and perhaps was just a tad nervous. He looked over to the fans, saw them roaring him on and clenched his fist. I don’t know why, but it was good to see.
He scored. We won. Great job Athikun!Despite everything that happened - I haven’t even mentioned Cedric sacrificing himself via a late tactical foul that earned him his second yellow of the game - this match wasn’t a classic by any means, thanks in no small part to yet another ref who believes that a strong official has to blow his whistle at least once every ten seconds. Yet the penalty shoot out was as tense as any I‘ve witnessed and it’s worth noting that even with players like Alasanne playing less than half the game we still managed to overcome a team sitting 3rd in the North East table.
Keep up the great form, lads. If we draw a D1 team at home in the next round, I fancy an upset.
