Eastern destroyed as unbeaten league run continues- Kitchee 3 Eastern 0

Kitchee's unbeaten run in the league stretched to six games as first half goals from Temirov, Fernando and Aaron Rey saw off our rivals. The second half passed without much incident, and served as an opportunity for players to get minutes into the legs.

Team news

For the first time this season, Kitchee named an unchanged starting eleven to take on Eastern, who had played on Thursday in their Senior Shield triumph.

Talley; Bae (Law 84), Leon, Dantas (Helio 84), Jordan; Machado, Ngan, Rey (Welthon 56) , Fernando (c) (Lung 56); Juninho (Poon 72), Temirov

Unused subs: Wang, Chen, Buddle, Tuscany, Slattery, Yeung, Jason

Match highlights

A dinked cross from Machado found Temirov unmarked in the box, and the Uzbek headed in to give Kitchee the lead after five minutes. Talley had to be alert to keep Narh's header and Gondra's driven effort out, keeping Kitchee ahead. After half an hour good pressure in midfield from Aaron Rey allowed the Spaniard to play in Temirov, who selflessly set up Fernando, and the captain for the day scored again. The first half continued to be all Kitchee- a pointlessly long VAR check for a possible Kitchee penalty did not prove anything, and Machado went close, being kept out by Yapp. Midway through the eight additional minutes (the majority as a result of the VAR check), good work from Temirov, Fernando and Juninho down the left wing played the ball across the box, and despite Yapp's initial save, Rey was on hand to beat Jojo to the rebound, and Kitchee were in dreamland at 3-0 up, with Eastern looking completely lost.

In the early exchanges of the second half, Eastern goalkeeper and Hong Kong captain Yapp Hung-fai was removed, and soon afterwards Rey and Fernando were withdrawn for Lung and Welthon, with mixed reports saying one or both may have had injury concerns. Temirov had two great chances to extend our lead- him and Machado led a counter attack but the former's first time effort went narrowly wide, and soon afterwards Temirov got a toe onto Ngan Cheuk-pan's ball over the top but Narh cleared his shot off the line. Substitute Welthon went close, but the second half ended goalless, and Kitchee are now unbeaten in four games to start 2025.

Fans feedback

After a disappointing 2024, Kitchee have come away with eight points from the first four games of 2025, and arguably could have got all twelve. The squad is playing with more purpose, and is in tune with Cardoso's desired tactical philosophy, and the attack looks much more potent. Fernando and Temirov have both scored in back to back games, and the defence has been solid. The quality further up the field has meant that Talley has not had much to do, but he did make two good saves at 1-0 and will be delighted to have achieved his fourth clean sheet of the season. Eastern looked like a team that had played on Thursday and aside from a bright spell in the first twenty minutes, tired very quickly and offered very little threat. That being said, Dantas was booked for a foul and was lucky not to receive a second yellow card, which could have changed the game.

Fans may be concernd at the potential injuries to Rey and Fernando, with the pair both coming off early in the second half, with Fernando seemingly injuring his hip. With Tan Chun-lok, Mingazow and Haddow all long-term absentees- although Haddow has featured for the under 22s recently, the lack of winter business could backfire. Machado is banned for the next game, and Dantas, Rey and Bae are all one booking away. Given Cardoso's evident reliance on key cogs in the system, some more discipline is needed to ensure that players do not miss big games through the silly accumulation of petty yellow cards. Kitchee now have games against Rangers, HKFC and Kowloon City, which when they last played this trio Kitchee won by a combined margin of eighteen goals to one, and given the good performances of the recent weeks, fans will hope for some more dominant performances.

A win against Eastern always goes down well with the fanbase, especially given Eastern's role in extinguishing Kitchee's slim chances of trophies towards the end of the last campaign. Eastern looked shattered with a short turnaround, and Kitchee eased to victory, in stark contrast to recent close encounters- the previous four games between the two were either draws or narrow Eastern wins. Fans were pleased to end Eastern's unbeaten HKPL run of over twenty games. Other fans took the opportunity to spend time with former captain and Kitchee legend Huang Yang, who joined the fans in block 28 for his first in person Kitchee game since bringing his career to a close

What's next

Rangers away at Tsing Yi on the 9th February, a 3pm kick off. We expect Tan Chun-lok and Ruslan Mingazow to remain on the sidelines, and they will be joined by the suspended Luis Machado. Fernando was withdrawn, but perhaps we may see Jay Haddow on the pitch for the first time since November.

Match highlights

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