Sixth league defeat of the season as Helio sees red- Kitchee 0 Tai Po 1

Kitchee's final home game ended in defeat. A scrappy game in front of a huge crowd saw Tai Po take the lead just before half time. Kitchee never really looked to equalising, a task that became harder when Helio was sent off with twenty minutes to go, in what could be his 225th and final Kitchee appearance.

Team news

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Jay Haddow remained out injured, with Leon Jones and Ngan Cheuk-pan both suspended. Tan Chun-lok made his first start since November, and Aaron Rey came in with Chen Ngo-hin dropping to the bench. Poon came on for his first appearance since late February.

Talley; Bae (Mingazow 46), Helio (c), Dantas, Jordan; Rey, Lok (Law 46), Fernando, Juninho (Lung 78), Temirov, Machado (Poon 78)

Unused subs: Wang, Hin, Slattery, Yeung, Jason

Match highlights

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Former Kitchee striker Lucas Silva went close twice early on; one effort just going wide and the other being saved by Talley. Talley later recovered to push the ball away from the big Brazilian after misjudging a long ball. Just before half time poor Kitchee defending allowed Renner to leap unopposed to flick it on for Law Chun-ting to fire goalwards; after initially being denied by Talley he tapped the rebound in.

Cardoso made a double change at half time, with Bae Jae-woo and Tan Chun-lok coming off for Law Tsz-chun and Ruslan Mingazow. This move saw Mingazow move to the right wing, and Juninho coming into midfield. Juninho had an effort deflected out for a corner, and a long ball over the top from Dantas found Mingazow, but Tai Po managed to clear. Renner almost doubled Tai Po's advantage, before Machado hit the bar with a great effort. Then some controversy. After a Kitchee set piece broke down, Juninho passed to Helio, who was taken out by a very poor tackle from behind, where the offender made no effort to get the ball. To the amazement of the Kitchee fanbase, this was not reviewed by VAR, despite the force taking off Helio's shinpad and leaving him in pain. When he got up he was clearly still aggrieved, sarcastically applauding the referee's decision and being shown a second yellow card for dissent, leaving us down to ten for the final twenty minutes. Talley denied Igor, before Rey went close, and the game ended 1-0 to Tai Po, dragging their title race into the final day.

Fans feedback

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A lot of the same issues for Kitchee, with a lack of shots- it took a while for the first shot on target, and most of Kitchee's efforts were wayward and from distance. Tan Chun-lok offered a lot of composure in midfield and we looked better- what could have been if he hadn't been on the sidelines for so long? Understandably he was withdrawn at half time, having only played a few minutes last time out, and still getting up to full fitness. Talley was solid again, and once again cannot be blamed for the goal, where Dantas got caught in two minds. The refereeing was inconsistent; after not giving a foul for an elbow on Juninho he then proceeded to give a number of similar and weaker fouls Tai Po's way. Helio's sending off was stupid, but if the officiating team did their job and actually reviewed a poor challenge, there would not have been the reaction. But by no means did we lose because of the red card or general poor officiating. Kitchee were fairly lacklustre throughout, and we go into the final game hoping for a reaction in what will likely be the last games for a number of players. Tai Po inflicted our sixth league defeat of the season, our most since 2007/08.

What's next for Kitchee

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One game left, 'away' to Eastern on the 25th, 3pm at Mong Kok. A chance to end the season on a high by beating our rivals. Callum Beattie's pre-contract agreement to join us from HKFC has been finalised, and will likely play left back for us. He is currently waiting on his Hong Kong passport, and hopefully the bureaucratic process is swift for both him and Jay Haddow so they can play as local players next season. Those at the ground for our recent victory over Rangers will have noticed a current HKPL player in the crowd talking to Kitchee fans, players and staff following the match, and we understand his move is close to being confirmed.

Hong Kong play Manchester United in an exhibition game at the end of the month, before a friendly against Nepal and the Asian Cup qualifier against India. Kitchee are represented by seven players in the 37 man preliminary squad, with Leon Jones, Helio, Poon Pui-hin, Tan Chun-lok, Fernando, Ngan Cheuk-pan and Juninho called up.

With the end of the season drawing near we have seen former Kitchee players Jakob Jantscher and Ju Yingzhi announce their retirements, and we wish them the best in the post-playing careers. 

Photo credits

Inmediahk

Sportsroad

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Match highlights