Match Report and Prediction League - Match 9 - Kitchee fight back to salvage draw against Southern.

Kitchee fought back from 2-0 yesterday to claim a salvage a point at home versus Southern and to maintain a league unbeaten record stretching back 26 league matches.  Kitchee haven't lost a league match at home since a 3-1 defeat by Eastern in January 2015 but that record looked under threat when Southern went into half time with a 2 goal cushion.  However, whatever Alex Chu said to his steeds at half time worked as within 20 minutes of the restart they were level. Sandro offered Kitchee some hope, nodding home a Fernando cross on 51 minutes and then 15 maters later Jared Lum scored a fantastic free kick to bring the home side level.  Kitchee had chances to complete the job and take an unlikely 3 points but Southern stood firm with 'keeper  Li Yat-chun making some excellent saves.

With Dani Cancella suspended following his red card versus Yuen Long and Helio still out injured, Chu had to go with an experimental back line pairing Recio at CB with Kim BJ and Kim DJ either side. This was the first time that this trio had lined up together at the back and you could certainly tell with Recio in particular looking very unsure and at fault for both of Southern's goals (the first of which was an own goal).  Local fans will be wondering what TK Man, KY Lo and KW Lam have to do to get a game as surely any of them would have been better options for this match. Also, if Chu thought that Recio was going to be able to fill Helio's shoes in the ACL then this will have given him food for thought.  

The Kitchee goals were well taken and it was particularly pleasing to see Jared Lum celebrating with a tribute to former team mate Matt Lam.  Lam, who has been loaned out to Lee Man following the arrival of Diego Forlan, was sorely missed yesterday and his creativity and drive could have been the difference in a match where Kitchee struggled to create at times.  

However, the match wasn't without bad fortune for Kitchee. Alex hit the bar twice in the first 20 minutes and Li Yat-Chun made some fantastic point blank saves to keep out both the Nigerian and Brazilian Lucas (who looks low on confidence following his injury and in need of a goal). 

Forlan came on for a 5 minute cameo, to a raucous response, but was largely ineffective out on the wing, offering nothing other than a few crosses into the box that were headed away by the Southern back line, who were marshaled well by Zesh Rehman. The Forlan effect was seen prior to the game with queues for tickets going down the street and a huge line to shake his hand at the end of the game. Whilst the match wasn't sold out the Boundary Street and Flower Market Road stands were pretty much full and there were 1000 more spectators for this fixture than last season. Maybe not as many as expected but perhaps people were unsure whether the Uruguayan would play having only arrived in HK on Thursday.  Maybe Thursday's game against Eastern will see a greater uplift...

With everyone predicting a Kitchee victory, no one took full points on the prediction league. However, John Phillips will be wishing that Kitchee had pulled off the turnaround as that would have seen him take a perfect 6 points from the league. As it was, it was only 2. Billy Chan still remains top but Yuen Wing Yan, now in second place, is catching up!