Temirov's tap in gives Kitchee three points in the heat- Rangers 0 Kitchee 1

Written by Adam O'Domhnaill

Summary

On a hot day in Tsing Yi, Kitchee emerged victorious. A drab first half saw both teams have chances, before Temirov broke the deadlock midway through the second half. Substitute Leon Jones saw red late on, but Kitchee saw out the win, with welcome returns off the bench for long term absentees Tan Chun-lok and Ruslan Mingazow.

Team news

Law Tsz-chun and Jay Haddow remained out injured, with Welthon missing from the squad again. But there was a return to the matchday squad for Tan Chun-lok and Ruslan Mingazow after longterm injuries, as well as Poon Pui-hin. Aaron Rey and Jason Kam dropped to the bench with club captain Helio and Chen Ngo-hin coming in. This prompted a slight reshuffle, with Fernando moving into central midfield, Machado on the left and Hin on the right. Lok and Mingazow came on in the second half, much to the delight of fans, who were also left wondering what the season would have looked like if both were available more this campaign.

Talley; Bae, Helio (c) (Leon 84), Dantas, Jordan; Hin (Mingazow 68), Ngan (Lung 68), Fernando (c), Machado; Juninho (Lok 84), Temirov (Slattery 84) 

Unused subs: Wang, Rey, Buddle, Tuscany, Yeung, Jason

Match highlights

On a hot day, less than four hundred fans were in attendance, with a number of HKPL casual fans opting to head to HKFC. Dantas played a ball over the top, but Temirov was denied by Oleksiy in the Rangers net, before Fernando went close with a freekick. Kitchee's obsession with playing out from the back caused problems yet again; Dantas dawdled in possession, with Lau Chi-lok taking advantage to break free. Dantas fouled him while going for the ball, and a penalty and a yellow card was given. But after a lengthy VAR check, the decision was overturned, and Kitchee got away with one. Talley then pulled off a great save to deny Lau Chi-lok, and Kitchee went in at half time 0-0.

The second half started with Talley denying former Kitchee academy graduate Aki, before Kitchee started to come to life. A clever corner routine saw Hin dummy over Machado's ball to Juninho on the edge of the box, who found Ngan, but his header was saved. Some nice linkup in midfield gave Hin the ball on the right hand side. After the initial cross was dealt with, it popped back to the youngster, who played it across for Temirov to tap in, scoring on his 50th appearance like Juninho last week. Soon afterwards Ruslan Mingazow came on for his first game in over a hundred days. Machado and Juninho went close to doubling the lead, as did Temirov from a freekick. As the game came towards a close Kitchee made a triple change; amongst them Leon Jones returning from injury after a month, and Tan Chun-lok returning after six months out. Moments later Leon was barged off the ball by Lau Chi-lok, and hauled him down. With no effort to play the ball, he was sent off and Rangers had a freekick in a dangerous area. The freekick was dealt with, and Kitchee held on for the win, with Lok filling in at centre back.

Fans feedback

Tsing Yi is a terrible pitch, and the ball was getting stuck in the turf. Add the heat into the equation and it is natural that it was a far from perfect performance, but Kitchee held on for the win. After the longterm absences of Mingazow and Tan Chun-lok it was great to see both return. The yellow card for Ngan Cheuk-pan (his fifth of the season) and Leon's red card means both are banned for Tai Po in two weeks time. Kitchee showed glimpses of good football against a resolute defence, but allowed Rangers too many shots.

Tactically we saw a number of defensive mishaps leading to chances, with Dantas lucky to have a penalty overturned, and Leon was sent off. The team were slow to get back and cover, and were grateful to Talley for pulling off a number of good saves, and securing his sixth clean sheet of the season. The young goalkeeper has kept Kitchee in multiple games this season, and meant our defeats have been less severe; alongside Dantas and Fernando he is probably our player of the season, after taking some time to bed in initially. We were slow to get shots off, but the poor pitch and heat played a part, making it was inevitable that our goal was a tap in. In a game that offered little, Chen Ngo-hin was awarded man of the match after his assist.

As we move into the closing stages of the season it seems apparent a number of players will not have their contracts renewed, and another rebuild beckons. We've seen two standout players from lower teams in the league in the stands in recent weeks, along with other players being linked (although from sources of varying reliability). On this page we regularly criticise manager Edgar Cardoso and chairman Ken Ng, but fans were grateful to have the opportunity to chat to them post-match yesterday. While a number of fans would have appreciated this earlier in the season, we have to say fair play given the animosity shown towards them regularly, being willing to hear us out and acknowledging mistakes. Hopefully we can finish off the season with two wins.

What's next for Kitchee

We have two games of the season left, both at Mong Kok Stadium. First up is Tai Po at home on the 17th, before we 'travel' to Eastern on the 25th. Another rumoured Kitchee signing was in the crowd at Tsing Yi, and as the weeks roll on we expect to hear more concrete news on them as well as other possible signings. On the departures front, Sohgo Ichikawa will join Southern in the summer after spending the last two seasons on loan there, and we wish him the best.

Match highlights

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