Dateline 25^th September 2016

 Pattaya United 4 NRFC 1

The Swatcats rolled into “sin city” searching for points to help achieve a top ten finish and possibly place one of the final nails in the coffin in the Blue Dolphins’ fight for premier league survival.

 The visitors began with a bang with a goal from Pratan in the 3^rd minute – a fine, powerful header from a well flighted corner.

The blue dolphins fought back with a series of raids forward, looking effective and particularly dangerous. With the Swatcat defence conceding a series of free kicks, one sensed that this could still be a long night for the men from Korat.

In the 10^th minute an angled shot from Pattaya struck the post and minutes later a lob went inches over the visitor’s crossbar.

In the 16^th minute a free kick was awarded just outside the box and the kick was expertly converted to equalize the score. The home team continued to probe and looked a decent team going forward. The Swatcats looked jaded and seemed to have no answers as Pattaya pressed.

Pattaya went ahead when a disputed penalty was awarded and converted in the 31^st minute - a lead they probably deserved. In the aftermath Lindemann was lucky to stay on the pitch following a head butt on an opponent. Minutes later a rare chance for the Swatcats as a half volley was well saved and from the resulting corner Tagbajumi headed wide.

After conceding yet another free kick, a whipped in cross was headed into the net to give the Blue Dolphins a 3-1 lead as the first half came to a close. In added time Chanatphol was dismissed for a dangerous tackle. All in all a bit of a horror show from the visitors so far.

With the match all but a dead rubber, the Swatcats failed to make the home team feel under any real pressure as the home team searched for a fourth goal and in the 60^th minute Pinto, completely unmarked inside the 6 yard box, headed in to complete his hat-trick.

A now demoralized Swatcat team played out the final 30 minutes hoping not to concede again and presumably left to wonder “what went wrong tonight?”

Not too many positives to be taken from this encounter. A stuttering performance with no real cohesion between defence, midfield and attack.  Few real chances were made and the defence looked very shaky throughout. The team was well beaten by a side tipped for relegation by many and the result was a bit of a shock to the many fans that made the long journey to watch the match – in short a reality check for the Swatcat team.