Kitchee maintain order by coming from behind to win north of the Border - Prediction League Results - Match 7

Kitchee maintain order by coming from behind to win north of the Border 

Played at the primitive YangZiGang "stadium" (I say "stadium" as it is really one temporary stand for around 2,000 people, overlooked by a block of student flats with a few portaloos around the side) in front of a crowd of just 821 fans, R&F took the lead against the run of play after 13 minutes when, former Shanghai Shenxin player, Hou Junji picked up the ball around 20 yards out and let fly with a low shot that beat veteran 'Keeper Wang ZhengPang at his left hand post. Whilst the shot came as a bit of a surprise, it wasn't exactly flying through the air and so Wang should have probably done better.

Playing in vibrant pink, Kitchee had numerous chances to equalise but the Blue's defence stood firm right up until the end of the first half when, deep into stoppage time, Alex was fouled inside the area. Smelling the chance for blood, Sandro stepped up and confidently dispatched his penalty to bring Kitchee level just before the break.

That equaliser gave Kitchee the momentum coming into the second half and nearly went ahead when Kristian Vadocz had a header cleared off the line following a Matt Lam corner.  Kitchee had the majority of possession in the second half and kept plugging away but a resolute R&F defence stood firm and it seemed that the Champions would be left frustrated until Jared Lum broke the deadlock in the 84th minute. Lam Zhi Gin took a shot that hit an R&F defender and fell into the path of the Aussie who dispatched a low shot to beat the R&F 'keeper. Seeing his shot nestled into the bottom corner, Lum turned away and ran towards the 50+ elated Kitchee fans who had made the 3 hour journey to the mainland. 


Kitchee continued pressing and Fernando added to the scoreline with just about the last kick of the ball after an Alex Akande pass to make the final scoreline 3-1. 

In all, it was probably a more difficult game than Kitchee were expecting but R&F were previously unbeaten at their home stadium and will continue to cause most teams headaches on what appears to be a difficult pitch to play on.

Next match: vs Southern in the Sapling Cup (Hammer Hill Sports Ground).

How did that result affect the prediction league? Well, the late injury to Lucas (who is now out for 3 weeks with a Tendon injury) meant that many guesses for first scorer were instantly wrong and Fernando's last minute goal meant that ABS's prediction went out of the window. However, Liu Kam To managed to get his prediction spot on and Patrick Chan, Jason and Kaka all predicted the right score.  Those points see Kam To move up to 4th at the top of the league as things begin to get closer and closer.