With the USRC v Goodfellas match being postponed due to the current unrest, the game between league leading Club Tropicana and third place Wanchai Spartans took on extra significance. A week after going down 1-0 to USRC, a Spartans win would bring them back into parity while a Tropics win would open up a 4 point gap on USRC with the those teams meeting in a Friday night blockbuster on 6th Dec. Both Tropics and Spartans were missing influential players from their starting line ups but both brought full squads to Happy Valley and from the off it was Tropics who looked the hungrier not allow Spartans to settle anywhere on the pitch. Tropics thought they had taken the lead when Kyle Wagner headed in from a goal line cross but somehow it was deemed to be offside. They did however take the lead when Paul Ryding, more known for his headed goals, slashed in a loose ball from a corner. The ink wasn't even dry in the ref's notebook from that goal before Spartans equalised when Jose Aguilar met a headed clearer from 20 yards, stroking into the bottom corner. Into the second half and Tropics had two clear cut chances before a push in the box saw the ref blow for a penalty and Kyle Wagner stepped up to slot the ball home. As you would expect Spartans pushed on and Tropics fell deeper but no clear cut chances were created and Tropics saw the game out 2-1.
Forward have seen themselves struggle over the past two season since their all-conquering 2017/18 season and now find themselves in a possible relegation dogfight after going down 3-1 to Mes. The difference according to the Mes manager was the fact they were more clinical with the win allowing Mes to leapfrog Forward into tenth place. David Quimbayo (2) and the ever youthful Chris Delaigleaiaia on target for the former Wanchai bar with Singh Pardeep netting for Forward.
Revolution secured a somewhat surprising point against J-Leaguers who, thanks to their talisman Nakamura, took the lead when a scored a brilliantly hit free kick that dipped into the bottom right hand corner. Not to be outdone however, Revo hit back just before half time when David St George Brown hammered a 22 yard freekick into the onion bag. The second half Revo pressed on and had more of the play as the Japanese dropped out and had enough chances to secure all three points but as darkness fell onto the pitch it became increasingly harder.
Scottish bounced back from their previous weeks defeat to record a comfortable 4-0 win against DBFC. Scottish started well from the whistle and had the upper hand in the first half. Second half was much tighter but a quick couple of goals put the game to bed although credit to DB who stuck in there hitting the post twice. Scottish goals from Rob Scott, Tommy Bartles, Lorenzo Guittai and Miles Winter.
It was a contentious result that spawned an approximate 60 message What's App discussion but in the end the 1-0 result to Soho Spartans v Corinthians stood with Patrick Malingula scoring the decisive goal. With the Corinthians manager already "looking forward to the rematch".....game for men not boys in that rematch!!
With the unrest escalating over the past week, a few teams made the call to not play this weekend so despite a reduced a fixture list, there were still some cracking contests taking place.
Irish Harps vs Wolves had a tasty look to it with Wolves looking to get back to winning ways and challenging the Irish at the top. In a game that ebbed and flowed, Wolves snuck ahead before Jamie White finished well from outside the box to draw Harps level before the break. A neat finish from Ian Killoughery briefly gave Harps the lead but Wolves showed their teeth and grabbed an equalizer after punishing some ponderous defending. Wolves had fought back to seemingly salvage a point in their last game a week ago, only to be done by a free-kick winner and it would be the same heartbreak here as Killoughery did the damage from a set-piece and condemned Wolves to back to back defeats. 3-2 the final score.
Bants were able to recapture some of the form from 2 seasons ago that saw them promoted from Division 2 as they saw off Dragon Valley 4-1. Bants had dominated the game and were deservedly 4-0 up before Max Remington got his customary goal. An unsurprisingly short match report from DV this week who were left to lick their wounds.
In the only other Division 2 game taking place, Legal Head beat Young Guns 1-0 to continue their recent resurgence in form. Despite a bizarre pre-game rigmarole of whether the pitch was open or not, Young Guns started brightly but were unable to turn their opportunities into goals as Head keeper also pulled off an excellent one on one save. They were made to pay as Felipe Bonilla finished through a crowd of players to sneak one in to the bottom corner. Young Guns responded well but were again wasteful as they failed to nab a point.
