Another clean sheet as winning run continues- Kitchee 3 Southern 0

Summary

Kitchee extended the winning run with a comprehensive victory at home to Southern. On a wet Saturday in TKO, goals from Jason Kam, Dantas and substitute Jordan Lam made it an easy win. Kitchee were dominant and could have scored more, with the margin of victory allowing key players to come off with the crucial game against Lee Man in two weeks in mind.

Team news

Roger Riera was suspended, having previously not missed a minute this season. Lok and Leandro dropped to the bench. Jason Kam came in at centre back, with Kendy and Mingazow coming in further forward. Mingazow captained Kitchee from the start for the first time in his career, having previously taken on the armband in the latter stages of games. There were also a return to the bench for Seb Buddle, having not been in a matchday squad since September due to injury.

Bear; Haddow (Buddle 82), Dantas, Jason, Beattie; Illarramendi, Mingazow (c) (Anson 77), Kendy, Kanda (Lok 74), Juninho (Jordan 74); Adrian (Lung 82)

Unused subs: Wang, Leandro, Adrian Chan, Ari Lam

Match events

Juninho was heavily involved early on, with a nice cross from the left not met by anyone. He also forced a save from Ivan Ng after winning the ball back just outside the box. Illarramendi went close with an acrobatic effort, as Kitchee were dominant, and they got their goal halfway through the half. Kendys low corner evaded everyone in the box, and Adrian peeled off to shoot goalward, where Jason Kam flicked it in for his first professional goal. Shu Sasaki almost equalised with Southern's only chance of note; after a corner was cleared out, he struck the ball on the volley just over the bar.

Kitchee continued to dominate in the second half, with Juninho denied by a great save. Just after 70 minutes, Kendys freekick was headed in by Dantas for his second Kitchee goal as another set piece paid dividends. Tan Chun-lok and Jordan Lam then came on, with the latter scoring almost immediately from Mingazows cross to also score his second Kitchee goal. At 3-0 Kitchee were cruising, and with a crunch game in 2 weeks against Lee Man, Calderon brought off Mingazow, Adrian and Jay Haddow. It was great to see Seb Buddle make his first appearance since April, after a few injuries in the last 9 months. Bring on Lee Man

Fan feedback

A straightforward win, with enough to get past Southern without breaking a sweat. This was actually Kitchee's first home win over Southern since October 2022, as the last two league meetings ended in draws with Kitchee massively underperforming against a bogey team. The team adapted well to the poor weather conditions, and were able to manage player minutes, with Tan Chun-lok coming off the bench with bigger games ahead. The defence was largely untroubled, although a little bit chaotic in getting the ball out of Kitchee's half, but Southern had no answer to Kitchee's attack. On another day Kitchee could have easily had five or six- Kitchee should have had one penalty, maybe two, and did miss a few good chances as Southern were relatively disciplined, just not good enough. Great personal milestone for Jason Kam to score his first goal in his breakout season, with Dantas and Jordan both doubling their Kitchee goal tallies, and it eases the pressure on the attackers knowing that there are goals throughout the team, albeit the vast majority are still attacking players. Kitchee have used set pieces as a bit of a weapon recently, both in unsettling opponents and in the case of this week, scoring twice. The Lee Man game in two weeks will prove a key benchmark in how far Kitchee have come; both sides enter the game in a fairly freescoring way- Kitchee have scored ten and given up two in their last three games while Lee Man have scored twenty goals in their last four, while letting in five. It promises to be a huge game, and a win for Kitchee would put them into the driving seat for the league, while even a point maintains Kitchee's advantage.

What's next

It should be Lee Man at TKO on the 14th February, at 6pm. But conflicting reports in the media suggest that this game may be moved to accommodate the Lunar New Year Cup. Keep up with us on social media for updates.

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Highlights