Left to right: Andy(gk), Tel, tonyC, Colin, Sanj, Ed, Damian, Sam, Gez, Patrick, Forlan.
we soaked up a bit of pressure for the first 5-10mins as people found their feet on the cr*ppy Lok Fu pitch, for most of the remainder of the half we totally dominated, our back four was totally solid with TonyC leading the defence and Thunder barely got a sniff of the goal. Some top notch passing going forward with everyone linking up well saw Gez/Sam/Damian/Ed/Patrick all using the space and feeding balls for Forlan to attack. We could have been 3-4 nil up with Folan pulling 2 shots wide, Patrick’s cross across the face of the goal unmet and Sam failing to get on the end of another pass across the box. a couple of late scares with Thurnder scoring from an off-side ball after we passed to him.
(Q for Billy, if a player is offside and the opposition defence passes the ball to him, is he offside?)
Coming in at half time we felt the game was ours if we kept the pressure on, a couple of changes with Varun on for Ed and sam off for Chi switching with Gez in midfield to play as a foil for Damian. We continued where we left off with chances falling to Forlan, Patrick latched on to a pass by Gez down the right wing stormed all the way into the box only to "covert" for 3 points. after 5 mins Tel came off for Hemant at left back and was solid at the back. Hao came on after 10 mins or so to replace our only recognized centre mid. Sanj lost one of their players who got behind our defence and our centre backs were caught out with 2 players unmarked in the box and against the run of play Thunder went 1-nil up.
As soon as the goal went in, the ref turned on us with every 50:50 decision going our way, out of nowhere the opposition had 9 subs to waste time and the usual falling and rolling for the most innocuous challenges.
We lost our shape and gave up the midfield to the opposition, however we were still counter attacking well with Gez&Varun working the wings well, Chi getting stuck in to win the ball. Forlan had a few chances coming in from the left, Patrick in the box surrounded by 3 players had a chance to score, however one of their players "fell" and grabbed the ball with his outstretched hand…no surprises when they got a free kick. Thunder could have killed the game off 5 mins from the end with a mess up at the back however somehow they could not convert.
A disappointing result but our own fault for failing to convert our chances and from Thunder’s celebration at the end easy to tell who was the better side. Another ref who refused to show his official ref ID and the name typed on the match record does not tie with any names on the HK football association website.
Post match drinks saw a poor turnout of 5, Terry edged man of the match for his soldid performance, Hao had a chance to fall on his own sword to take Mug of the match for mouthing off at both managers but decided to vote for Patrick on the basis of his yellow card for politely pointing out to the ref what was thought of his performance.
Goals: a big fat zero
YC: TonyC, Chi, Sanj, Patrick
