UMT Stadium (Ubon)

 

UMT Stadium is a football stadium located within Eastern University of Management and Technology in the city centre of Ubon Ratchathani in northeast Thailand. It is an excellent little stadium which is not unlike a lower division venue in Holland.

Building on it began in 2015 and is the former home of the then topflight Ubon United when they finished in 2019 through financial problems. The stadium was inaugurated in 2017 with a game between Ubon UMT United and Nong Bua Pitchaya. The first goal in the stadium was scored by Ubon’s Brazilian striker Tiago Chulapa 

Ubon Poly competed in the Semi-Pro League of 2022-23 out of the venue, which is often used by the various university sides such as Poly and North Eastern Polytechnic Vocational College who played in the 2023 Thailand Amateur League.

My visits

Ubon Poly 4 Ubon Kids City 2 (Sunday 5th March 2023) Thai Semi-Pro League Northeast (att: 432)

Read all about my most enjoyable first visit here.

Amnatcharoen City 6 NMSS FC 1 (Sunday 7^th May 2023) Thailand Amateur League Northeastern Southern Zone (att: 140) 

It was a hot weekend day and I had already been to a morning match in the Amateur League at Tung Burapha Stadium in the northern extremes of the city before returning for a spot of lunch before my second encounter.

This was much better than the first game, not least being in an excellent little stadium which I enjoyed on my previous visit, with its quaint stands and being close to the pitch on all four sides. The addition of plenty of covered accommodation pleased me greatly. 

I got to see an enjoyable match, with the winners from the next-door province of the same name having 90% of the support in attendance, who were extremely enthusiastic and friendly folk.

The opposition Nahon Ratchasima Municipal Sports School, to give them their full title, had a five-hour journey either way, madness when you think about it for regional amateur football. They started the brighter until either bus, car, or coach lag got the better of them. 

It was only the actions of the Amnatcharoen keeper, Parinthon Phothiphan who looked like he enjoyed his food and drink, which kept them level until his side upped the pace and went in at the break ahead with a goal in stoppage time from Sittisak Nimma who scored an absolute screamer from at least thirty yards.

It was great to be in the shade with plenty of refreshments which I bought at a nearby store. ACC took the game by the scruff of the next after the restart while I moved to a position behind the goal midway through where my appearance caused some curiosity among the locals.

Nimma added a second before the impressive skipper Takoon Taothong made it 3-0 just after the hour mark. NMSS pulled one back through Ramet Bauchit offering slight hope, but it was all but extinguished when Taothong grabbed a second.

I was getting ready for another taxi ride as sub, Satapon Simuan added a fifth, while the Korat side’s goalkeeper Kittipong Leeporphan and the woodwork played their part in keeping the score respectable. Simuan made it 6-1 just after my departure.

I needed a getaway to catch the 3.15 train from the far side of the city, with my driver delivering me with a few minutes to spare. There was a 4pm game but my energy levels were running out quickly in the heat.

The later match featured a team called The North Eastern Polytechnic Vocational College, all but Ubon Poly except name, who had pulled a flanker by changing their title to grab another opportunity to win promotion. They ran out 7-0 winners and I hoped that they succeeded as UTM Stadium needed to be staging Pro League football and have a club challenging for promotion in a big city. 

Sods Law decrees that if you want to sleep on a Thai train there will be women screaming and selling their wares through the carriages. If you are desperate for a cold drink, there will be none to be found, and so it was on the 7 Baht ride to Kanthararom where my wife was waiting to take me home and feed me.

I enjoyed a terrific day which was helped later by watching my favourite Thai side, Port beat Chonburi 3-1 on TV. It was still 35 degrees at 10pm which necessitated some very cold beers before bedtime.

Nakhonratchasima College 4 BWS Wanderers 2 (Saturday 10^th July 2023) Thailand Amateur League Northeast, Southern Zone Quarter Final (att: c50)

The Amateur League continued along filtering out teams through the knockout stages, as the eventual winner of each section hoped for promotion to Thai League 3. I was honestly not sure how promotion would work if at all and online information was scant.

It was a game that won’t live long for the quality on show, but many years of watching football have registered the importance of making a day of it so if let down by a game, all is not lost, which was certainly not short of incident.

Both sides travelled up to five hours from Korat in the west all the way to the farthest eastern city. Madness to me, but when in Rome etc. At least it afforded me a quality venue to view proceedings, especially with free admission.

A colour clash of sorts too didn’t help the spectacle. The victors were in all red with blue trim, the other mob in an orange and blue striped outfit quite similar to that of Port FC in Bangkok. Indeed, BWS played like a bunch of Port fans after a sesh at a game at the PAT Stadium.

How they won a group game and even kept a clean sheet is beyond me. It was the second time I had seen them after an earlier 1-0 defeat at Tung Burapha Stadium. I was not clamouring over eagerly for a third look after experiencing this performance.

A low shot from Nattawat Deesuksam, a simple finish by Anurak Mungdee and then a screamer from 20 yards from the boot of Patipan Duadkrathok had the game sewn up with less than half an hour on the clock.

I thought I was going to see a proper drubbing, which it had been in all but the score. BWS were puffing like Boris Johnson out jogging and trying their unfit best to make it respectable. Their only attempts came from set pieces. They were simply a yard slower than their opponents 

Mungdee added the fourth ten minutes after the restart after referee Phaithun Onkhamloon had hilariously waved away what was as stone wall a penalty as I’ve seen in ages. He perhaps felt sorry for those taking the tonking. Or maybe he wasn’t very good either.

Immediately BWS pulled one back through Phawat Sakunkanchan and then scored in the final minute as Bandit Inmanop netted against the college side that had long since started planning their quarter-final tie. 

There was a second game, between the host side North Eastern Polytechnic Vocational College, and Roi Et PB Academy, which the Ubon side won on penalties. However, one game was enough for me as I headed off for some exercise.

A cracking day aside from the match. Up to feed the chickens out the front before 6am, a later lift with my wife to Kanthararom where I used the Post Office and then the railways station, both offering outstanding value for money and customer service. 14 baht return for a 40-minute each-way journey.

Cheap lovely food outside Kanthararom station, and a school match on the way from a brief skeg. I eventually reached the stadium by songthaew and then by taxi after I thought we were going the wrong way.

Post-match, a 50-minute walk to keep up the fitness regime to Wrong Way Café. I’d have gone earlier but it didn’t open until 4pm, an hour after my game finished. Some ice-cold bottles of San Mig Lite were the perfect medicine until it was time for a taxi to the station.

 

Tung Burapha Stadium (Ubon)

Tung Burapha Stadium is a multi-purpose stadium in the Jaeramair municipality of Ubon Ratchathai province in northeast Thailand, located around 13km northwest of the city centre. The arena was formerly used by Osatspa in the top tier of Thai football on occasion if the information is correct.

The capacity of the stadium is stated as being 10,000 with semi-permanent open seating surrounding the running track, none of which has any covered areas to protect it from the sun. It is owned by the local municipality who appear to use it for local events and hiring it out.

My visits

Sisaket Wittayalai School 1 BWS Warriors 0 (Sunday 7^th May 2023) Thailand Amateur League Northeastern Southern Zone (att: c25)

My attention was drawn to a competition that I had enjoyed the previous year while residing on the outskirts of Bangkok and fancied attending again. Especially as I would be coming across teams I’d never heard of before and there was a chance of visiting a new venue.

It was a warm Sunday morning when the wife dropped me by the market in Kanthararom, the nearest sizeable town to us in Sisaket province at around 8am, so I could get a minivan to Ubon Ratchathani where the day’s action was to take place.

 

Communication as usual difficult with the woman on the desk where the vans stop, as she speaks not one word of English, and my Thai was just met with a smile and a gesture to sit down. This I found frustrating as I tried my best, and used Google translate as an aide.

The first van to arrive was full, so it meant it was just gone 9am after a second one pitched up and when I reached Ubon bus terminal. I took some photos of the boards which advertised where services travelled to which were written in Thai. 

I could translate these later as they would hopefully allow me to find some unknown pleasures in the future as I am otherwise reliant on public transport or lifts. A nice young lady dropped me outside Tung Burapha Stadium in her Grab taxi.

Among its distinguishing features were a disused scoreboard and floodlights that are a long way back from the stands. An unusual feature is that like Highbury in Fleetwood, the original main stand stands behind the current one. 

Just what views spectators used to get must have been terrible. To gain access to the new area you walk down the old player’s tunnel going past the changing rooms where some were sheltered from the hot sun.

I quickly realised I’d made a schoolboy error, as I had only one small bottle of water, and no refreshment stands were open, with the stadium having no roofs. I hoped that by some miracle a mobile caterer might pass like at some games in Bangkok I’d attended, but in my heart of hearts I knew we were too far away for anyone to realise.

I watched the first half under the shade of the far stand with an obscured view before finding a bit more shade on the far side for the second half which also had a much gratefully received breeze. I was seriously close to bailing out at one point.

The game on the heavily grassed surface was nothing to write home about. I was unsure where BWS came from, but I knew that they needed to up their game if this was anything to go by. They got away with the best score they could have hoped for as the Sisaket mob missed chance after chance.

Don’t be fooled into thinking it was a school team, in the way. Many organisations bolster their line-ups from anywhere to try and win a place in the Pro League’s which would appear to be something of a status symbol to educational establishments and their CV’s.

The game was decided by a penalty scored by Oakkarapong Tongkam just before the half hour mark after the awkward forward Apisit Keawchaingthong had been tripped in the box. As mentioned, the heat was stifling, my thermometer saying it felt like 46 degrees. The ref sensibly had drinks breaks, but surprisingly only one in each half after thirty minutes.

 

In the second half I was sat next to a team waiting to play in the second game at 1pm. The coach of Roi Et FC asked if I were scouting and struggling to work out why I would be there otherwise. He might have had a point…

With a couple of minutes remaining, I ordered another Grab to take me back to the city at Ubon Square, which is a large shopping area to grab some food and liquids and then take a ten-minute walk to the UTM Stadium for my second game of the day.

Northeastern Polytechnic Vocational College 1 Nakhonratchasima College 2 (Sunday 18th June 2023) Thailand Amateur League Northeast Southern Zone Semi-Final (att: c120) 

A decent semi-final encounter in shocking conditions after half-time would have surely meant an immediate abandonment in England. The pitch was splodgy enough in the first half which saw a stretched encounter with both sides playing nice football from the off, despite going down the tunnel with the scores blank.

At the interval, a huge downpour deposited itself. A few weeks ago, at the same venue I was suffering from sunstroke, this time the wife’s brolly which I requisitioned saved me from a proper soaking. Most locals just shrugged their shoulders and accepted it. They’re hardy souls. 

The local bunch representing Ubon Poly went ahead just before the hour mark. Sub Phuttiphong Somboon turned superbly just inside his own half and went on a brilliant run through the puddles before providing Thoedkead Siribon who scored with a sublime clip over stranded keeper Suchat Wongwat.

The celebrations as the players slid on their knees through the water in front of their ecstatic following as good as the goal. The scores were level within a few minutes when referee, Jirayu Lohapom, who officiated sensibly throughout allowing for the conditions and didn’t put up with playacting, pointed to the spot after deciding a shot was blocked illegally.

The aptly named Anuarak Mungdee scored from the spot. The side who travelled across from Korat had been impressive the week before when I saw them and were the slightly more creative of the two sides on this occasion.

Sunthon Sanitnok scored the winner twelve minutes from time when he finished at the back post after a corner was flicked on. His side defended comfortably to see out their win despite some attempted late pressure.

Why this match and the semi that followed were played in a stadium well out of Ubon city with no cover for spectators in rainy season was beyond my comprehension. I know nobody is forced to attend but it seemed a bit daft when there were 3 good stadiums in the city, all offering protection against the elements.

It provided me with the issue of no Grab taxis wanting to head out after the game in torrential rain, for which I don’t blame them. I sheltered and walked before the worst of it and sheltered in a local shop. Fortunately, I was able to hail a cab that deposited some players to pitches outside the main stadium at a very decent complex. 

Many other games were taking place in all adult age groups in the Ubon Ratchathani Cup which was for local teams at the Provincial run site which also contains tennis and golf and stores for the council wagons, though I didn’t see any gritters.

A lift from my wife to Kanthararom and back home when I returned. The small bus fare was 106 baht return to Ubon. From there taxis in each direction of less than 2 quid each for the 9km ride. A smashing few hours out and home for a traditional Isan hotpot and the Test match.