Match report from Jeff Andrews  

On my third outing as stand in Manager of the night Spartans, only 3 Spartans showed up out of a confirmed 7. Tony choi, Ian and a GPS failing leabdro arriving minutes brfore kick off. Adding that we only had 10 players . and seeing the opposition had a few familiar faces from their very own congolese cintigent from 816/french dragons

Thanks to my job where I deal with refugees I managed to recruit 4 African players of my own. But still with 10 men, Tony Choi and Leandro were mumbling amongst themselves on how I managed to mess this one up. And probably looking at a thrashing too! But lucky enough a Chinese lad who was supposed to play earlier in the evening in tsing Yi was so late for his game he completely missed it and ended up playing for us.

Then of course in true Spartans style and A league fashion/cock-up Both teams did not have a football to start the match. After a 10 minute blame game! The opposition managed to get a ball and kick off it was.

We played a 4-4-2 formation with sanju in goal.Leandro and tony choi in central defence, Ian on the left and my colleague Daniel on the right. Midfield we had me and the 2 refugees and another friend of mine John playing on the left. And the Chinese lad & my other refugee (kato) up front.

It was an end to end start and to our credit we passéd the ball around Pretty well for side that had 6 newbies. We took the lead through kato with a wonderfully built up move from midfield. 1-0 and playing well defensively and in attack. Then against the run of play 5 minutes to the end of the half they take the ball off our winger and created a chance and scored. Midfield was slow to back up the defence. Leandro then took one for the team by pulling their AFRICAN player who Was clean through.

We went into the break and thinking to ourselves we can beat these guys. Second half started and they had some confidence back in them and they took the lead with another shot outside the penalty box. Sanju disappointed with his late reaction as the ball went through his underarm.

2-1 And i thought to myself either it’s damage limitation or to just go for it with no subs in place.

Though another 10 minutes later after constant crosses from our wingers. We finally equalize with kato scoring with a well placed header.

The opposition started pressuring us for the winner. But our defence was challenging for every ball and getting the better of the African players. They soon showed their frustrations by taking on shots from difficult Angles instead of playing the simple pass. With about 8 minutes to go after defence starting a move to midfield and then our chinese winger played a through ball to kato who ran a good couple of yards before cooly placing the ball in the bottom corner of the net. 3-2 and minutes left. We managed to ride out a wave of attacks and when the final whistle blew. Leandro finally smiled and said Christmas came early. Finally winning in Tsing Yi! Don’t know if that’s a first?