For their trip to Suphanburi,Buriram appeared to be suffering from a bit of a hangover following their determined second-half performance against Guangzhou Evergrande on Tuesday. Neither keeper had a real save to make as both sides struggled to create chances of any note.
Buriram will rightly claim that Suphanburi’s equalizer should have been ruled out as Supachok was pulled to the ground before the ball was played through to Romulo who also looked suspiciously offside.
Jakkaphan was relegated to the bench, his place being taken by Suphachok and Sasalak came in for Korrakot. Both welcome changes.
One unsavourary aspect of the match was the cynical fouling of Diogo throughout the entire game and the Brazilian was badly let down by a weak referee. The main culprit was Tinnakorn who was just about out of control and indeed he was substituted in the first-half before the referee actually remembered where he had put his red card.
It reached farcical proportions when Tinnakorn went to ground after the merest of touches to his chest by Diogo’s arm and he reacted when Diogo tried to pick him up, earning both of them a yellow card.
Buriram started well, moving the ball about nicely but the final pass was disappointing. It was the home side who had the first chance in the 24th minute when the ball was chipped into the box from the right and Romulo volleyed over the bar.
Edgar picked up a yellow card for an innocuous challenge and indeed it was his first offence. Buriram huffed and puffed but apart from a few corners (most of which were completely wasted) they rarely troubled the home defence.
Then out of the blue, Buriram took the lead in the 42nd minute with a well-worked goal. Diogo found Sasalak out on the left and he sent over a lovely cross for Edgar to direct a clever downward header into the corner of the net.
Buriram just about deserved their lead but they needed to show more purpose in the final third in the second-half.
The second period began badly for Buriram with Suphanburi scoring a controversial equalizer in the 50th minute. Narubadin picked up a loose ball in his own area and played it forward to Supachok who was pushed and finally pulled to the ground. The guilty party then chipped the ball over the Buriram defence for Romulo to score with ease. He looked offside but the Buriram defenders had also switched off, expecting the free-kick to be awarded for the foul on Supachok.
Buriram responded by creating their first clear opening of the half in the 56th minute when good work by Diogo saw him find Edgar in space just outside the area but he pulled his shot wide when he really at least should have hit the target.
Buriram made their first change in the 60th minute when Jakkaphan came on for Suchao, who sadly is a pale shadow of the player he was. Shortly after, Supachok made progress down the left before sending over a teasing low cross which the keeper failed to gather cleanly but no Buriram player was around to profit from his mistake.
Narubadin then had to go off on a stretcher following another heavy Suphanburi challenge, being replaced by Supachai. Buriram came close in the 72nd minute when Diogo found Supachok who shot first-time and the ball struck a defender and flew inches wide of the far-post.
Buriram made their final change in the 79th minute when Korrakot replaced Sasalak. Almost immediately a long ball down the right was picked up by Diogo in the box and he was halted by what appeared to be a push in the back. (As often happens with Buriram in these circumstances, there were no tv replays.)
The nearest Buriram came to a winner was in the 83rd minute when Jakkaphan’s left-wing corner was headed against the crossbar by a Suphanburi defender.
All in all a disappointing performance but being fair, Buriram were not helped by a very poor referee.
Next up is Thai Port at home on Wednesday, April 11, 5.45pm.