Why Raj deserve to be in D1

Rajpracha's survival in Division 1 was finally secured on Wednesday night when Chantaburi failed to defeat Air Force United. I'm absolutely delighted for Rajpracha as although the league table never lies at the end of the season, I am certain that 'The Crowns' not only deserve to stay up, but are in fact one of the best teams in D1.

So how then, did we come so close to the drop zone? Well the problem began shortly into the start of the campaign. After a strong set of opening games that put us in a top five slot, Raj began a slump in form that saw us getting hammered on a regular basis. It quickly became apparent that the new coach was not competent and the squad started to look more and more like a nervous bunch of schoolkids playing against men. It must be said that the people in charge took too long to deal with this problem in my opinion, it was obvious what needed to be done a long time before action was taken to remove the coach. We suffered for that delay. However, even in this period the players showed bursts of the quality they are capable of.

New coach Somchai quickly set about making changes and improvements and the players started to show what they can do. A win at home to (then) second placed Air Force United was followed by a win away to Nakhom Pathom (still in the promotion race), a narrow home defeat to runaway leaders Sriracha was followed by a two-nil win against them in the FA Cup and that in turn was followed by a draw with Chiang Rai United who are also still hunting promotion. In all these games Rajpracha showed superb football skills, as they played a passing and attacking game with pace, skill and confidence.

But with such a large deficit the team were always playing catch-up in a sixteen team division with four teams taking the drop and just a couple of poor results set us back. A loss away to Thai Honda was followed by a terrible official's decision at Chula United that literally turned a win into a defeat, plunging 'The Crowns' back into trouble. It also seemed strange that both the old coach and his replacement seemed to rotate players for the sake of it, even though some are clearly so much better than others.

There followed a nervy few days for the fans, not least myself having tasted relegation with Southampton and never wishing to taste it again. But other results soon ensured Raj's fate was back at their own feet and they never looked back, winning away to Narathaiwat and crushing RBAC at home.

That win sets the scene for this Saturday (with a new kick off time of 1530) as fans of both teams prepare a joint party to give their "player(s) of the season awards" and celebrate promotion and survival respectively. For Raj, it also means they can now look forward to the exciting FA Cup tie with neighbours Muangthong next week.