A dubious late penalty gave Kitchee all three points in a 3-2 win over Citizen in the RedMR First Division at Tseung Kwan O Sports Ground last night.
With the score 2-2 in the closing stages, second-half substitute Jonathan Carril scored from the spot after Detinho was ruled to have pushed Carril in a goalmouth melee, giving the champions consecutive wins in the first two games of the season.
"If you need to win by a penalty in stoppage time, it's hardly convincing," said Kitchee boss Ken Ng Kin. "I didn't see it and don't want to comment but I hope the team can ride on the good luck and avoid making similar mistakes in the next match.
"Our system did not work well in the first period and that's why we had to make some changes after the break. Carril definitely strengthened our attack."
Citizen president Pui Kwan-kay slammed the decision. "It is ridiculous. It's hardly a penalty," he said. "The result is not important if we play well, which we did, but it is hard to swallow if we lost the match because of bad refereeing."
Citizen striker Yuto Nakamura had to be pulled away from the referee by teammates at the end of the match.