Welthon's stoppage time brace seals victory over HKFC- Kitchee 4 HKFC 0

Kitchee made hard work of a well-drilled HKFC side, requiring two stoppage time goals from Welthon to ensure a comfortable win. Aaron Rey scored early on to open his Kitchee account, before Ngan Cheuk-pan doubled the lead after the hour mark, as HKFC improved massively from losing 8-0 in the same fixture last year. 

Team news

Kitchee made four changes; Jay Haddow had recovered from concussion, and came in to replace Tan Chun-lok in defensive midfield, with the latter ruled out by a knee injury. Helio continued to be unavailable, as did Kim Shin-wook. Law and Fernando came in at fullback, and the in-form Sherzod Temirov was rewarded for his cameos off the bench with a start. Mingazow dropped out of the matchday squad, and Diego Bardanca made a return to the side from the bench, having not featured since the Southern match. Seventeen year old Tom Yeung made his Kitchee league debut in the closing stages, having made seven substitute appearances in the Sapling Cup last season.

Talley; Law (c) (Lung 59), Ngan, Jones, Fernando (Bardanca 74); Haddow (Lam 59), Rey, Juninho (Poon 74); Temirov, Welthon, Machado (Yeung 89)

Subs: Wang, Chen, Buddle, Tuscany, Slattery, Jason

Match highlights

Kitchee got off to a flier with Aaron Rey opened the scoring after five minutes, after being played in by Welthon. This was the Spaniard's first goal for Kitchee. Kitchee pushed for a second, in scenes reminiscent of last season's 8-0 win, where Kitchee were 6-0 up in half an hour. But the young HKFC side marshalled by veterans Freddie Toomer, Toby Down and former Kitchee man Andy Russell have professionalised this season, and the increased training intensity was apparent, preventing Welthon and Temirov from doubling Kitchee's lead. HKFC almost scored a shocking equaliser as Kitchee's determination to play out from the back almost cost them; Talley received the ball back from Leon Jones, but his attempted long clearance was charged down in the box, but the Englishman was able to recover and keep the score at 1-0. As the first half drew to a close Juninho and Aaron Rey both had the ball in the back of the net, but were both denied by marginal (but correct) offside decisions. HKFC went close again with Russell's header across goal almost being prodded in, but Kitchee stayed in the lead at half time, although fans were definitely expecting more having scored fourteen goals in the two previous games.

Soon after half time Talley's long ball fell to Aaron Rey, who was brought down on the edge of the box. At this time HKFC captain Toomer came off injured, being replaced by twenty year old Estlinbaum for his league debut. After a couple of Kitchee changes, with Haddow and Law being replaced by Lung and Jordan Lam, a clever Kitchee corner routine saw Machado's cross headed in by Ngan Cheuk-pan, and the academy graduate scored his first goal for almost two years. As the second half went on Estlinbaum kept the score at 2-0, denying Welthon and Juninho amongst others, while HKFC offered precious little going forward. Kitchee brought on Bardanca for his first game in almost a month, and handed a league debut to Tom Yeung. As the full time whistle came into view, Welthon's header was deemed to have crossed the line in stoppage time for a 3-0 lead. Good work by Poon in regaining possession resulted in him crossing to the back post for Welthon to seal the 4-0 win in the ninety sixth minute.

Fan feedback

Three wins in a row, and five unbeaten to start the season. The score line did not reflect how easy the game was; HKFC did not collapse after conceding an early goal like before, but did not offer much threat throughout the match, save for a few set pieces. Kitchee were wasteful in the first half, not getting shots away in good areas, and having two goals called back for marginal offsides. It did show that Kitchee has not figured out a way to effectively attack against teams who sit deeper. The attack linked up nicely but did not create enough clearcut chances, which will need to improve against better sides. Welthon had two goals and an assist, and both he and Temirov are scoring at a rate of a goal a game. The contrasting styles did not quite link up as well this week, but having both the technicality of Welthon and the work rate of Temirov stands us in good stead.

Ngan Cheuk-pan's goal put the game to bed in the second half and deflated HKFC. Welthon's stoppage time double applied some gloss to the scoreline that made it more accurately reflect the game. Talley was lucky not to concede after the playing out from the back backfired, and some fans feel that using Wang in some games would help, to free up another foreign player spot outfield. However, Talley is young and in a new league, and Kitchee have used eight defenders across five combinations so far this season. The constant change will not help a young goalkeeper. Jay Haddow played in midfield for the first time since his Kitchee academy days and put in a shift, but whether this is a long term strategy is unclear for the time being. Cardoso is still finding his best side, and it is very possible it will continue to change game by game for the foreseeable future.

Fans are pleased to see Cardoso giving minutes to fringe players and building them up; after two effective cameos from Chen Ngo-hin, Tom Yeung made his league debut. Last season Kitchee academy graduates of all ages only played around 1700 minutes, but after five games this season graduates have played nearly 800 minutes, aided by the return of Ngan Cheuk-pan from his loan and Cheng Chin-lung having a more prominent role. Last season Kitchee's reliance on aging players cost them, and giving squad players minutes, especially those who came through our academy, can only be a good thing. Even if the result is already secured, if provides good squad depth and in the case of young players, shows that the coaches think they are ready to play at this level.

Despite eighteen goals in three games, fans are not getting complacent, with Tai Po away and Lee Man at home to follow in the next month. Will Cardoso and Kitchee keep the same tactical approach? Or adapt to deal with the different challenges these opponents pose. Brazilian centre back Matheus Dantas was pictured in the crowd, and on paper looks to be more suited to Kitchee's play style than Diego Bardanca. Dantas was in the academies at Sao Paulo and Flamengo in Brazil, before taking in spells in Belgium, Portugal, Cyprus and the Czech Republic. We wait and see when (or if) he is officially announced as a Kitchee player.

What's next

No Kitchee game until 19th October (Tai Po away). In the meantime Hong Kong play away in Liechtenstein on the 10th (1.30am on the 11th HKT on on.cc) and at home to Cambodia (15th). The Cambodia game will be at Hong Kong Stadium but no ticket information is available yet. Leon Jones, Juninho, Fernando, Ngan Cheuk-pan and Poon Pui-hin are our players selected. After the international break, Kitchee travel to Tai Po on the 19th October, which will be a big test of the squad.

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Match highlights