A clinical performace from top of the table USRC saw them maintain their position at the summit of Division One as they saw off DBFC 5-0. After a competitive start to the match, USRC exserted their dominance and cruised to a 2 goal lead at half time through Aron Russel and a Kieran McBride penalty. The 3 points were secured in the second half when Aron Russel got his second with a "Koeman esq free kick" before Marcus McMillan got in on the act by netting himself a brace, the second being a 25 yard volley over the DB keeper.
Third met fourth when Wanchai Spartans entertained Scottish Stags and it was the Stags who started stronger scoring from a corner. The pendulum continued to swing in favour of Scottish as Spartans were reduced to 10 men following a crunching tackle from behind, although there was debate whether the challenge merited that colour of card. Taking advantage of the one man advantage Stags extended their lead in the second half before a Spartans fight back via Mike Grimshaw and Simon Liu saw them level it up 2-2. Stags scorers - Lorenzo Guittai & Peter Harrod
With USRC winning on Friday, the challenge was laid down to Tropics to maintain the pace with the leaders and they answered that by seeing off Forward 4-2 at Happy Valley. Falling behind to a Daniel Derani goal, Tropics pushed on and Nathan Beaumount bundled the ball in from a headed down corner. Much the better team, Dipesh Tamang made it 2-1 latching onto a through ball before cutting inside his defender and beating the GK at this near post. A clear penalty should have been awarded to Forward when a deflected shot hit the Tropics defenders hand but the referee deemed it to be outside the box. However, Forward would feel that justice was served as from the resulting free kick they nodded the equalizer via Singh Pardeep right on the stroke of half time. The second half belonged to Tropics and goals from Nicky Lam and a 35 yard free kick from Kevin Reid saw the points safe and puts Tropics second in the league on goal difference.
With a game in hand, Goodfellas are sitting fifth in the division on 9 points and dominated Corinthians in a 6-0 drubbing. No excuses were offered from Cors who simply had no answer to a full strength Goodfellas who scored their goals via a Rob Davis hat-trick, a Sam Miller brace and a single from Steve Franklin.
The two promoted team from last season met and with both team on 2 points before the game it was an important game to try and get one of them further up the table. In what you'd expect to be a close affair it turned out to be a rout for Revo as they smashed 6 past Mes for no reply. Revo manager praised his lads for "finally stepping up" with the goals spread evenly across both halves via Jamie Kelly (2), Jacky Zhang, Tim Rechter, Kyle Duncan and Paul Di Lizia.
J-Leaguers beat Soho Spartans in the last game of the weekend, seeing them off 2-1 via goals from James Nortey & Kenichi Sekino. On reflection, Spartans felt they were unlucky not to get a draw but with only a Jamie Lindsay goal to show for their efforts they fell a goal shy of claiming a point.
The Samurais continue to march on in Division 2 as the impressive Blues chopped down the Eagles 4-0 in a comprehensive manner. Despite missing a few first team regulars, the last minute additions slotted in seamlessly for the league leaders and helped to maintain their fantastic start to the season. Ahmed Jemli was the hero as he bagged a hat-trick but was almost outshone by a wonder goal from Mir Adil to make it 4. Setting off on a mazy dribble, he jinked and shimmied his way past 3 Scottish defenders before beating the keeper and adding some gloss to the damage inflicted by Jemli.
Harps look like they will be right up there this season too as they kept pace at the top with an impressive 5-0 victory over Dragon Valley. It really was one of those days for DV who found themselves 3 down from 3 corners within the first 25 minutes before a comical own goal added to their woes as the unfortunate keeper slipped over and watched in despair as a harmless back-pass rolled in, leaving Dragons to pin their hopes on a malfunctioning camera sparing further embarrassment. To round things off, Dave Byrne helped himself to his second of the game after the break to ensure the Dragons were well and truly battered and Byrne-d by the final whistle. Ian Killoughery and David Clinton with the other Harps goals.
Wolves were always fancied to have too much for Shooters and so it proved as they ruthlessly tore their prey to shreds in an 8-1 mauling. Perhaps not wanting to rub any salt in the wounds, Hao was uncharacteristically quiet on the chat, just listing out the scorers and even complimenting a ref! Chris Jim and Henry Li were left to fight over the match ball as they got 3 each with Arnold Poon helping himself to the other 2. Komori with the consolation for Shooters.
Krauts and Young Guns played out a close game with the Germans eventually picking up the points with a 3-1 win. The greater physicality of Krauts showed early on as they bullied their way to a 2 goal lead. Dave Tse then pulled one back for YG and the game was tight for large periods of the second half with Guns spurning a couple of chances to draw level. This would prove costly as Krauts sealed the win late on with a 3rd. Jorrit Knief was again too sharp as he got a brace with Patrick Bez also having something to dance about.
Old Speckled Men were in desperate need of a win to get their season back on track and on paper could not have been given a better opportunity as they faced pointless BOCs (as in 0 points, I’m not being a dick). This one was a Legal League classic with the perfect combination of crap defending, questionable offside calls, late drama and some decent finishes decorating Tuen Mun with excitement of the right kind. Speckles started well as Jonny White headed in the opener then doubled his tally finishing from a flick on but BOC fought back as they capitalized on some dodgy defending by getting on to a long ball over the top and halving the deficit. White was running the show though and after his smart back-heel set up Tom Howard to finish emphatically, it seemed to ensure the points would be safe. BOCs showed their grit again as they pulled one back with 5 minutes to go but just ran out of steam as OSM held on for a 3-2 win. Jason Lee and Stephen Yeung for the unfortunate BOC.
The final game from Saturday saw Legal Head and MBFC draw 1-1. Legal may feel they would have won this had they got a full squad out as having turned up with the bare 11, an early injury put them up against it. MBFC took advantage of this as Wang Weizhi headed in from a corner only for Jason Tiger to come roaring back by levelling things up. With chances for both teams to nick it, a point seems fair and both sides can take some positives.
So on to Monday and the day that is usually the calm after the storm in HK, it was anything but in LL terms.
Royals were able to pick up their first win of a so far disappointing season as a strong second half showing saw off Shui Wei 4-1. Buoyed by their shock victory over J-Leaguers in the cup last week, Royals rode the crest of that wave with goals from Luca Merlone (2), Ben Walker and Paul McGunnigle enough to take the win. Angel Gomez had earlier struck to make it 1-1 at the interval.
Then in one of the big games of the weekend between San Pells and KCC Cavs, there was to be further drama. Both of these strong sides had been putting on a fine game of quality football laced with entertainment until an incident late in the second half caused the match to be abandoned with Cavs leading 3-2 at the time. As the Disciplinary Committee will be deciding what punishment to dish out to San Pells and the player involved then I will be taken myself out of the firing line by not providing an opinion. The result will stand meaning that Cavs go level on points with Samurai Blue at the top.
