The battle for the Thai League 1 crown is not over yet.
A goalless draw at promoted Khon Kaen United and a 2-1 home victory for BG Pathum United over Port on Saturday night trimmed frontrunners Buriram United's lead at the top.
Buriram went into the northeastern derby nine points ahead of defending champions BG Pathum United.
However, the Thunder Castle's hopes of wrapping up the coveted title suffered a massive blow when their prolific forward Jonathan Bolingi was sent off in the 41st minute.
A rough tackling incident near the centre line led to Bolingi head-butting Khon Kaen defender Alef Santos.
The match referee reviewed the incident on the VAR screen and handed Bolingi the red card, forcing Buriram to change their tactics midway through the match.
With Buriram more keen on avoiding any further damage, the match ended in a draw, shrinking the Thunder Castle's upper hand to seven points with three games remaining.
An evenly contested first half saw Pathum and Port battle for midfield dominance.
The deadlock was broken in the 26th minute when Santiparb Janngom lobbed the ball into the box for Irfan Fandi to out-jump the Port defender for a sizzling header into the net.
Irfan's younger brother Ikhsan was instrumental in doubling the Rabbits' advantage three minutes later when his blistering shot was guided into his own by Port's Karnnarin Tawornsak.
Nine minutes into the second half David Rochela gave the visitors a hope for pulling off a tie with a well-placed drive which narrowed the margin to 2-1.
Port concentrated on attacking but their efforts failed to yield the equaliser they were looking for.
