Two managerial heavyweights of the Legal League came together on Friday night as United Services Recreation Club Gunners in second played, entertained Wanchai Spartans in third. Before the game, pundits in the studio couldn't pick a winner as both teams looked on par and the match itself turned out to be this way as USRC narrowly edged it 1-0 thanks to a second half Kieran McBride penalty. USRC have proved over the weeks they are fast starters and once again they demonstrated this by having multiple chances throughout the first half but they couldn't capitalise with the teams getting their half time oranges all square. USRC took the lead via the aforementioned McBride penalty but it was Spartans who finished stronger and were up in arms when a stonewall handball inside the box was not given. After the match the two managers were very complimentary with each others teams which Steph Kelly stating "USRC are the team to beat this season" while Stephen Cairns replied "Thanks Stef.....tho we think you guys are the team to beat this season!".......get a room lads!!
With that victory USRC went top, albeit for less than 24 hours, as Club Tropicana FC picked up 3 points against Hong Kong Scottish Stags to return to the summit of Division One. The hero for Tropics was Bendeguz Borsi who came off the bench in the first half to capitalise on a mistake in the Stags defence and lobbed it over the keeper from 20 yards. Over the piece Tropics had the clearer chances with at least 5 going begging but had to defend well as Stags pressed and had a lot of the ball. In the end however, Tropics held out to take the valuable 3 points back to Jaffe Rd.
Revolution, having started slowly to life in Division One are slowly but surely finding their grove and picked up 3 points against Soho Spartans via a Jamie Kelly strike and a Vijay Dowlani penalty. That result takes Revo into seventh position in the league on 11 points with Soho sitting in 10th. The game however ended on a sour note with a bad injury to a Soho player 9 minutes from time which resulted in the game being stopped, the league wishes him well in his recovery
Vu Pham scored a hat-trick against his former club as Goodfellas ran out 6-1 winners over Forward. Racing into a 2-0 lead and dominating, Fellas took their foot off the pedal and allowed Forward back into the game who halved the deficit with a goal from Anshul Maindola. A few choice words from Goodfellas management at half time had the desired effect and in the end a comfortable victory was secured. The other Fellas goals coming from Mathieu Demange (2) and Louis Man
Discovery Bay FC secured their third win of the season seeing off a spirited Mes who came out the blocks fast for the first 20 minutes and pressed DB high. However once DB weathered that they began to influence the game and went in 1-0 at half time. It was a similar story in the second but switched round as DB started the stronger scoring two more in that spell before Mes had the better of the last 25 minutes and pulled one back via Dan Clyne. DB scorers Foukas (Thanos) Athanasios and a brace from Eathan Squires.
Corinthians v J-Leaguers - Match Rearranged
Despite the unrest and uncertainty in Hong Kong, Legal league continued to provide a stable platform for some excellent games this week.
In the pick of the bunch, Legal Head took on an in form Wolves side and this one certainly didn’t disappoint. Head went ahead with a fairly contentious penalty (which was to be balanced out by not getting a stonewall one later in the game). Wolves levelled in the second half after a defensive blunder and this opened the floodgates at both ends. A second penalty put Head back in front only for Wolves to finish off a nice move and level at 2-2. Following a mixture of goalkeeping heroics and pinball, Head forced it over the line to re-take the advantage only to see Wolves snarl back for a third time. 3-3 with 2 minutes to play and this epic encounter needed something special to decide it. That was duly delivered by a 30 yard free-kick lashed home for Head to take the points in a ding-dong encounter.
San Pells vs Eagles always had the potential to be a tight game and with the searing heat playing its part, this was to be a more tactical and cautious affair. Nil nil at the break with Scottish looking the most dangerous, it took a good strike from outside the box to give them a deserved lead as Howard Kelly picked his spot. Obviously taking notes, Joel Yang then struck a similar goal for Pells to level it up and despite a couple more chances at either end, that was how it remained for a fair point all round.
Samurai Blue emphatically returned to winning ways with a 6-2 destruction of Young Guns. With the score 2-1 to Samurai at the break, Young Guns had briefly got themselves all square in the second half with a stunning goal but their joy was to be short-lived as an ‘Ousmane Dembele-esque’ performance from Nintaka Danjuma helped his side to score 4 unanswered goals and wrap up the win.
BOCs are beginning the get the tag of being unlucky in defeat as they went down narrowly 2-0 to a slightly fortunate but ultimately more clinical Dragon Valley. Talisman Max Remington gave DV the lead finishing between the keepers legs and in a second half where BOCs dominated but couldn’t stick it away (and were also unfortunate to have a goal ruled out), they were made to pay as Remington got his second, poking in from 10 yards out.
In the final game played, Shui Wei beat Krauts 5-3 in a slightly surprising result. No match report to go off.
