HONG KONG—Top of the HKHA Premier standings remained the same as the top 4 teams won their matches last Sunday Oct 2, leaving SSSC-A and HKFC-A on 12 points, Khalsa-A and KNS-A following on 9 points. However, with only one match to be played this coming Sunday (the delayed match between Pak-A and Khalsa-A), a Khalsa win would take them to the top of the table on goal difference.
In the early match of the afternoon at Sports road, HKFC-B, completed up a well-earned 2-1 win against Shaheen-A to move them into a clear 5th place in the table on 6 points.
In the later match at the same venue, HKFC-A had a hard battle against an experienced Pak-A side but eventually came away with a 4-2 win. Club playing their strategic passing game pressured the Pak-A defence throughout the match but found it hard to capitalise on their possession advantage. Pak-A with experienced defenders were able to successfully cut off Club attacks and looked dangerous breaking for the HKFC-A goal with forward pushes by Waqas Mohammad, feeding front man Khurram Shahzad. Pak-A were the first to score with a well-struck reverse stick shot from the right hand side of the circle by Shahzad with 12 minutes left of the 1st half.
HKFC-A responded with 2 goals in quick succession to take a 2-1 lead. The first strike was by Koen Phijffer from a rebound off the Pak-A goalie following an initial attack by Thomas Moore, and the 2nd, a goal by Howard Haskin in another close-to-the-goal confrontation, with 6 minutes remaining of the half. But Pak-A hit back gaining a penalty corner with just seconds left of the clock, from which they made a positive strike to finish 2-2 at half time.
Pak-A had two further penalty corner chances early in the 2nd half but could not make them count. The deadlock was broken by an attack by Club 12 minutes into the half from a solid hit from the edge of the circle by Kieran Smith. Amidst top quality play by both sides HKFC-A gained breathing space by converting a 4th goal with 16 minutes left on the clock. But the battle continued, with tackles becoming stronger and several players sin-binned, attacks by Club were countered by good performances by the Pak-A goalie and defenders, to hold the score at 4-2.
In the matches at King’s Park, KNS-A beat KCC-A 4-1, SSSC-A overcame HKCC-A 5-3 and Khalsa won 4-1 against Valley-A.
Top scorers after round 4.
This week
There is only the postponed match between Khalsa-A and Pak-A scheduled for this coming Sunday (Oct 9) to be played at King’s Park.
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