Rangers pounce on Valley weariness
Happy Valley conceded their six-match unbeaten run and handed Buler Rangers their first win of the season with a jaded and error-ridden performance at Mongkok Stadium yesterday.
Despite the 3-1 defeat, defending champions Valley remain top of the league, three points ahead of Sun Hei, who failed to capitalise on their rivals slip-up when they were held to a 1-1 draw by South China in the following match.
Just three days before, six of Valley's starting lineup had run themselves into the ground for the Hong Kong team against Japan's super-fit Olympic side, and the fatigue showed. Those who sped around like dervishes on Wednesday were ghosts yesterday. 'They didn't win the game - we gave it to them,' said a clearly annoyed Chan Hung-ping, coach of Valley.
'We made three bad defensive mistakes today which all could have been avoided,' added Chan.
Rangers manager Philip Lee Fai-lap knew his young team had been gifted a victory, and was hardly thrilled that they had clocked their first points of the season. 'We got the result because Valley played so badly,' Lee said. 'There is not a lot to be pleased about the performance - we weren't that good. We scored early and that unsettled them and gave us confidence. We are improving slowly but there is still a long way to go,' Chan said.
Rangers, captained by former China skipper Fan Zhiyi, were ahead after just seven minutes when Nigerian striker Cornelius Udebuluzor pounced on a loose ball and struck cleanly past goalkeeper Fan Chun-yip from 15 yards. On 29 minutes, Udebuluzor set up teenager Lo Kwan-yee, who showed determination to follow up his saved first shot and score at the second attempt. Valley coach Chan was prompted to make early substitutions, with two of the most weary looking - Lai Kai-cheuk, and Kwok Yue-hung - replaced. There was no immediate impact, though.
It looked set to be a classic 'game of two halves' when Valley scored just 44 seconds into the second period through Gerard Ambassa Guy. They continued to apply pressure but failed to equalise and tempers frayed.
Rangers were finding more and more space on counter attacks and finally they scored a third when Udebuluzor nipped in to steal the ball from the feet of goalkeeper Fan, who failed to deal with a poor back pass by central defender Colly Ezeh. Valley's Lee Wai-tik was sent off in the dying minutes for kicking Cheng Siu-wai.
