HONG KONG—For the second half of the season, the HKHA Premier league has been split into two sub division A and B, with the top 5 teams at the half way stage in the A group and the remaining 5 teams in the B group. Home and away matches will be played between all teams making 10 rounds in total.
A group comprises the A teams of SSSC, Khalsa, HKFC, KNS and HKCC. With 5 teams in each division 1 team takes a bye at each match day.
On Sunday Jan 7 HKFC played HKCC at HKFC and SSSC played KNS at King’s Park. Khalsa had bye in this first round. In Group B, HKFC-B entertained KCC-A and Pak-A met with Shaheen-A. Valley-A did not have a match this week.
At King’s Park, SSSC-A confirmed their top position in the table with a fine 8-2 win over KNS-A, to move up to 28 points.
The Group A match between HKFC-A and HKCC-A produced a “Battle Royal”. Although HKCC finished the 1st half of the season mid-table and some way down on points they have strengthened their squad with a new recruit from Australia and have brought in Ken Asaku, an ex-Japan International as sweeper. HKCC are a hard team to beat, they have a good goalie, are tough in defence with good ball distribution skills and have a number of skillful attackers. They really are bordering on the top level.
HKFC moved ahead after 17 minutes of play slotting home after the initial shot from a penalty corner had been blocked by the keeper. But HKFC were hard pressed to convert a second goal.
It was not until 13 minutes into the second half that HKFC were awarded 2 penalty corners in a row and scored their 2nd with a shot from the left of the shooting area passing the goalie at head height. Their 3rd goal came from a strike from the edge of the circle towards the left hand post which was converted by Thomas Moore with 13 minutes left on the clock. They added a 4th goal as the match was coming to a close for a 4-0 win.
