Happy Birthday to Us! The Sandpit’s First Year in Numbers

In all the excitement of Port’s hyperactive transfer window, we missed a very important landmark last week – the Sandpit’s first birthday! We launched the site on 27 November 2016 thinking we’d be catering to a small number of hardcore farang Port fans, but the site has exceeded our wildest expectations. Here are a few numbers from our first year…

38,488

The total number of visits to date

16,500

The amount in baht that we raised for victims of the Khlong Thoey fire in February 2017

2,522

The number of visits we received on our most popular day so far, which coincided with our April Player of the Month competition. A suspiciously large number of those visits were from Brazil. Yes, we’re looking at you Mr Josimar Rodrigues!

265

The number of articles we’ve posted since we launched

57

The number of matches – including friendlies – we’ve reported on

17

The number of writers who’ve written articles, reviews & previews for us. Thanks to all of you – we couldn’t run the site without you!

12

The number of podcasts we’ve recorded

9

The number of interviews we’ve run, with well-known Thai football figures such as David Rochela, Josimar Rodrigues, Mano Polking, Matt Smith & Jason Withe

1

The number of players who’ve blocked us on Instagram after getting a bad review

As founder of the site, I’d like to say a big thank you to all those who’ve written for us or taken part in podcasts, all the players & coaches who’ve happily taken part in interviews, the photographers who’ve shared their images with us, our sponsors at The Sportsman, and most of all to my two colleagues Tom Earls and Dominick Cartwright, without whose hard work, knowledge & creativity The Sandpit would cease to exist. A massive thank you to all of you, and we hope you’ll continue to help make the site a success as we move into 2018!

Tim Russell

The founder and editor of The Sandpit, Tim has been in SE Asia since 2003 and in Bangkok since 2012, where he runs a travel tech business. Tim has followed Port FC since 2014, and is also a fan of his hometown club Coventry City, and French club AS St-Etienne. He has written for the likes of Football365, ITV.com, NME and The Quietus, and is a regular contributor to God Is In the TV. He's a keen photographer and his work can be seen on his website.