Oxford United Chairman Sumrith 'Tiger' Thanakarnjanasuth wrote the following notes for match programme for the Sky Bet League One game against Burton Albion:
I have been fortunate enough to be here this week and able to watch two excellent games of football.
On Saturday, I was so proud of the whole club as we celebrated the life of Joey Beauchamp. There were displays from the fans, emotional tributes from so many people and I thought the whole day was a fantastic way of showing what this club and its players means to our fans. For Joey’s family to feel the genuine love from the Oxford United family was amazing and I want to say that they will always be welcome after what he did for his beloved hometown club.
I thought the current team played very well and deserved their win. Cambridge are a good team but I always felt we were going to come out on top in the game and in the end 4-2 was probably the right result. It was a very open game and very entertaining and four crowds in a row of over 10,000 tells its own story.
On Tuesday, I travelled down to Portsmouth and watched the first half from the Boardroom. I love to see our fans away from home and so I transferred at half time and sat in the away end with the supporters. I am so glad that I did. I wasn’t able to come to games in this country for a long, long time but sitting with the fans, joining in with the songs and the encouragement, was exactly what I needed to remind myself why I fell in love with the game so many years ago.
Okay, we didn’t get the right result, but the support was incredible, and I want to thank everyone there for making me feel like a football fan again. At the end a young fan was in tears because we lost. That is so painful to see, and I gave him my Oxford shirt and just told him that we will win again today for him. No pressure, Karl!
We have just ten games left now and like in a race you can see everyone bunching up and trying to get into the right position for a strong finish. I think we are in a great place, and I see Marcus Browne and James Henry come back, Billy Bodin not so far behind, and I know we are going to pick up pace and push for that final dream of promotion. If the support we get from the crowd helps push us a little bit further, then let’s all do that in every remaining game.
And with that in mind, I wanted to finish by mentioning the #HerGameToo campaign which we are supporting today. It doesn’t matter who you are, where you come from, what your age, race, gender or sexuality is, you have an equal voice and we will always make you welcome here.
Enjoy the game.
Tiger
You can read the full programme online at www.matchdayfix.com/oufc