Money’s a bit tight, but I decided to treat the family to a short break in Loei. What luck and coincidence, I find Loei is playing Udon and literally a stone’s throw from the hotel. Well, I never!
:-" Actually, if I’d stayed in the hotel room, I would have been able to see much of the game.
A very good number of Udon fans travelled, perhaps the holiday Monday a help in ‘recovering’. I was told the Manager had made three changes to the team including the ‘keeper, who didn’t impress in the first match. Unfortunately, and only my opinion, the replacement looked ‘unkeeperlike’ and makeshift too, flapping at a cross which led to Loei’s goal. I understand also that there’s a quota rule on the number of foreign players on the pitch at any time, which explains why defender Mamady is being held back as African players filling other midfield/forward positions.
Credit to Udon for staging a second-half comeback and scoring an equalizer, if scrappy. The Loei keeper certainly seemed the busier, perhaps just as well! An embarrassing, crude challenge by an Udon player who simply kicked the Loei guy up in the air as he was making for goal led to a justifiable red card. The ref did earn some abuse from the Udon crowd in disallowing a ‘goal’ when it appeared only a 50/50 coming together of the Loei ‘keeper and Udon player and ignored what seemed a clear pass back to their ‘keeper, who chose to pick it up whilst in the goal area.
Probably a fair result. Who knows which teams will be the front runners this year, after only two games and things can turnaround from season to season.
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