Spartans Masters 2 (Goals: A Mitchell, S Gordon)
HKFC 3
After a hard fought cup win we reverted back to the league of which we still remain winless after 4 games. HKFC are decent side no doubt and although we matched them for most of the game the sorry tale of conceding in the last minutes of the game reared its ugly head once more for us at Sports Road…third time it’s happened to us already. Surely it’s got to go the other way around soon!!!
We started brightly enough and played some good football early doors. For the first 25 minutes of first half we probably had the better of the play and we had a few decent chances but nothing clear cut that we took. Then HKFC started controlling the game and creating chances, they really should have gone up on the break a goal or two if not for poor finishing and some good saves from Adrian keeping us in the half.
0-0 at the break and all to play for game on.
We started second half a tad bit slow but against the run of play a delightful through ball from Tilak finds Andy Mitchell free who takes his chance well to give us a slightly surprising 1-0 lead early in the second half. We seem at this point to take foot off the pedal and make more mistakes with bad passing and casual football without any real urgency almost inviting HKFC back into the game. They seemed to thrive on this and able to break us more easily and if not for outstanding diving tackle from Lionel we pretty much would have conceded a goal pretty quickly. Midway through the second half a mix-up from our own throw-in hands the ball straight to HKFC player who counter attacks and with not enough players tracking back they finish off a good move to equalize.
We make a few more changes in the hope to thwart the momentum of the Football club have but we still seem on the whole to be on the back foot although we did stabilize somewhat. Although we dig in deep for much of the half with the occasional chance being presented it looks like we are going to hold them out until about 7 minutes to go.
In a cruel fate we attempt to clear the ball which rebounds off HKFC player which knew little about it and into our own net somehow. 2-1 down and looks like we done however for some excellent pressure from Miles and Randy, Stevie G gets header on to floating pass which the keeper misjudges over his head and we equalise 2-2 with only a few minutes remaining. Surely we can hold them out for a few minutes…….NAH!!!!
HKFC press forward and a cross from ex-Spartan Eric finds Kenicho in the middle of the box who somehow turns past Tilak who had brilliant game regardless and hits ball into the net….Adrian almost saves the shot but no luck for us. We press forward with a minute or two to go with a few attempts at goal by Miles and Stevie G but the game is done and a cruel loss no doubt.
I couldn’t fault everyone’s commitment, I was really disappointed with the loss as I thought we deserved better but that’s life. As for players performances thought Jay and Tilak had excellent games in centre defence. Adrian did a few crucial saves to keep us in the game on both halves while Paul Hoy and Sam really did a great job in first half defending out wide. Jon and Lionel looked slightly underdone and will no doubt get more fitness with a few more games under their belt. Midfield Miles and Steve G played well never easy against HKFC on such a big pitch. While Ken, Stevie Y and Kev thought had good games in wide midfield areas. Randy tried hard but not much was happening for him on the night however thought Andy Mitchell scored an excellent goal and did a pile of running off the ball and for mine was our MOM.
H
