Reality check: Eastern coach Chan Yuen-ting suffers defeat in Senior Shield final
World-famous coach didn’t have it her way this time as Kitchee break the jinx and lift the first domestic trophy of the season for the first time in more than a decade
The honeymoon is over – at least for now – for Hong Kong’s world-famous woman’s coach Chan Yuen-ting who was brought down to earth in Sunday’s Senior Shield final.
Looking for her third major trophy since her surprise appointment as Eastern coach in December 2015, the darling of the Hong Kong Premier League received a reality check after her side suffered a 2-1 loss to arch-rivals Kitchee.
Eastern, the two-time defending Shield champions, had carried much hope that they would help their star coach win the first domestic silverware of the season and start 2017 off with a bang at Hong Kong Stadium.
But the 28-year-old Chan – the first female in the world to lead a club to a top-flight league title last season – discovered that things weren’t always going to go her way as Kitchee’s Jared Lum scored late on in the game. Andreas Lam Zhi-gin scored the opener for Kitchee before Miroslav Saric found the equaliser only for Lum to settle the issue in the 78th minute.
Chan was disappointed with the result, leaving the stadium without giving any comment to the waiting press corps.