Wednesday, July 29, 2015

8 wins on the trot

Wednesday 29 July 2015: Phnom Penh Crown 1 BBU 0 (Metfone C-League).
Phnom Penh Crown took their winning streak of results to eight successive Metfone C-League victories but at a cost when defender Ngoy Srin fell awkwardly in the closing moments of the game and suffered a serious fracture of his arm. The Crown players were visibly shaken by the freak accident as the full-time whistle went soon after. The only goal of the game at RSN Stadium came on 33 minutes when Shane Booysen hit a first-time effort inside the far post for goal number 10 this season, after fabulous approach play by Va Sokthorn. Crown went close on other occasions through George Bisan, Sary Matnorotin, Sokthorn and Leng Makara and led by a single goal at the break. Two floodlight failures early in the second-half, causing a thirty-one minute delay, broke the game’s rhythm though Crown created the most dangerous moments through Bisan, Keo Sokpheng and Booysen without extending their lead. Crown go back to the top of the MCL on 25 points from 9 games played.
Following the 1-nil success, head coach Sam Schweingruber offered up his thoughts. “After the last 4 or 5 games one of the major messages from me to the players was that we need to be more disciplined and better organised, to take our defending more seriously. In that way we regret when we don’t score more but I’m quite happy when we show discipline and work really hard. I don’t think they (BBU) had a real chance in the whole game. I thought we should’ve finished it off with a few more goals, we definitely had enough to score a second or a third in the second-half. It was very disappointing and sad that one of the players who stuck to the game plan and played a very disciplined and selfless game – Srin – should suffer such a serious injury. I hope he recovers quickly. The team was shocked, some were in tears, they felt really sad for their teammate, but that’s football, it’s happened to other teams too and we have to deal with it.
Our goal was brilliance by Sokthorn. His driving, quick passing and the final ball to Shane to score was very clinical. Some great work throughout the game from Sokthorn, maybe my man of the match. I was shocked how the officials didn’t understand what was happening with Shane – not protecting one of the best players in the league – finally after the fifth poor foul on him we saw a yellow card. He was also booked for nothing but great players have to deal with that kind of treatment. Finally, I want to apologise to the fans and to BBU for the floodlight failure. It’s not satisfying and we will sort it out.”
Update: The latest update on defender Ngoy Srin is that he underwent surgery on a double fracture of his left forearm in the early hours of this morning. The surgeon, Dr Vuthy, said the surgery to insert two pins to knit the bones together was a success and if everything goes to plan, he could be back on the training pitch in three months time. Srin is currently under observation at Dr Vuthy’s clinic and everyone at PPCFC sends him their best wishes for a complete recovery and thanks to all the fans who have sent their kind words of support and encouragement.

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