Kitchee emerge victorious from the jungle- HKFC 1 Kitchee 3

Photo by Scoop

By Adam O'Domhnaill

For the third time in four weeks, Kitchee came from behind to win, and extend the unbeaten run to six (with four wins on the spin). Callum Beattie gave HKFC a shock first half lead, but Fernando levelled on the verge of half time, continuing his good goalscoring form. Beattie then turned villain, scoring a comical own goal to put Kitchee ahead. A controversial penalty given against Dantas provided Scally with the chance to equalise, but Fynn Talley held firm to deny him. Despite HKFC continuing to push for an equaliser, Sherzod Temirov wrapped up the win in stoppage time.

Team news

Photo by Scoop

Kitchee had two enforced changes, with the suspended Bae Jae-woo and Aaron Rey replaced by Luis Machado and Jay Haddow, the latter for his first start since early October. Jordan Lam had not recovered from his hamstring injury, so he remained with Mingazow and Tan Chun-lok on the injury list. Diego Bardanca joined the bench for the first time in the league since October. Kitchee retained the 4-4-2 formation of previous weeks, with a positional swap as Juninho moved into central midfield to allow Machado to return to the right wing.

Talley; Haddow, Leon (Helio 45), Dantas, Law, Machado (Chen 59), Ngan, Juninho, Fernando (Poon 73), Temirov, Welthon (Lung 82)

Unused subs: Wang, Buddle, Bardanca, Tuscany, Slattery, Jason

Match highlights

Photo by Scoop

Kitchee had the first real chance of the match when Dantas fired a loose ball from a set piece straight at Toomer in the HKFC net, before Leo Peres almost gave HKFC a shock lead. The Brazilian capitalised on some shoddy defending but could only hit the post. Toomer then denied Junior as Kitchee looked to be in the ascendency, but the defence was not looking solid at all. Prior to this game, HKFC had only scored five goals against Kitchee since 2006, but they took the lead when Callum Beattie played a corner short to Oscar Benavides and received the ball back in the channel. He took the ball inside unopposed, and curled a lovely effort into the far corner right in front of Sportsman's Bar. Temirov went close to an equaliser but it looked as if Kitchee would go into the break trailing for the second game in a row. But deep into a lengthy period of stoppage time Welthon set up Law, who played in Fernando to curl in a beautiful right footed effort first time. 

Photo by Scoop

Within five minutes of the second half, Beattie turned from hero to zero, inadvertently turning Fernando's cross into his own net, and the travelling fans felt as if a big win was on the cards, with Welthon going close a couple of times. But with fifteen minutes to go HKFC won a penalty, as Dantas was adjudged to have led with his elbow when beating former Kitchee centre back Andy Russell to the ball. The Brazilian earned a yellow card for this, with VAR confirming it was not a red card offence, but as it was his fifth caution he will miss our next game. Scottish winger Scally stepped up, having scored two penalties already this season, but he was denied by Fynn Talley diving to his right. As the second half went on Kitchee really should have put the game to bed; impressive substitute Chen Ngo-hin went close with a curling effort, only denied by a stunning Toomer save, and the Englishman in the HKFC net thwarted many more attacks. But as HKFC threw caution to the wind, Kitchee capitalised to score their third. A long ball forward toward Temirov was not cleared, and pressure from Lung forced a sloppy clearance. Juninho had loads of time to set up Temirov, whose deflected effort was his tenth of the season in all competitions.

Fan feedback

Photo by Scoop

Kitchee made much harder work of this game than they needed to, but HKFC are improving, as shown by the return fixture where it was only 2-0 until stoppage time. It is a fourth win in a row for the Kitchee machine and a sixth game unbeaten, propelling us into second place in the league. After not coming from behind to win in the league for years we have now done it three times in four weeks, showing a determination that hasn't always been there, both this season and in the past. Key to our recent winning streak have been Fernando and Temirov, who having spent large parts of the first half of the season on the bench or playing out of position have come in following the draw to Eastern and the switch to 4-4-2. Fernando on the left wing has three goals and three assists in four games, winning the man of the match award three times. Temirov has three goals playing through the middle in the last four games, and is on double figures for the campaign.

Photo by Scoop

Talley's penalty save was crucial to our success, as the slither of hope HKFC had of a positive result was extinguished. HKFC were defensively solid as they were earlier this season- the veterans Toomer Russell and Sealy cementing this, but Kitchee looked a bit short of ideas, the goals being a wondergoal from Fernando, an own goal, and a counter attack as HKFC committed men forward, although Kitchee were all over HKFC for large portions of the game. Law at left back, while not being a natural left footer, was constantly overlapping, even if the one occasion he did not Fernando had a go at him. But Law was key to our equaliser, slipping the ball onto Fernando to work his magic and continue his exceptional run of form.

Photo by Scoop

Dantas and Helio (on at half time for Leon Jones) threw themselves in the way of a number of HKFC attacks to preserve the win. Helio probably comes in next game as Dantas serves a one match ban for five cautions; since joining the club in October he has started thirteen of the fourteen games we have played. Juninho and Ngan Cheuk-pan were an unbalanced central midfield combination, and we look forward to the return of Aaron Rey and Bae Jae-woo from suspension, and hopefully Jordan Lam coming back from injury. Rey coming into midfield may allow Juninho to move forward into the front pairing- Welthon and Temirov do not click well together. Chen and Poon offered energy off the bench that we lacks as levels dropped, but the pair need to work on passing and finishing if they want to start regularly. It was great to see Jay Haddow get his first senior start in four months, and complete the full ninety minutes injury free. 

What's next

Photo by Muudesign

We have a break until our next game, taking on Kowloon City on Wednesday 26th at Mong Kok, 8pm kickoff. We follow this up with an FA Cup quarter final against Tai Po on Saturday 1st March. Kitchee are currently in second, three points off Tai Po having played the same number of games, and Lee Man's comeback victory over Eastern means that four teams are still challenging for the league, with ten games remaining.

Match highlights

Keep in touch with our social media Facebook Instagram

Thanks to Scoop for photos Facebook Instagram

Thanks to Muudesign for photo