National striker Dale Tempest made an impressive return from injury by heading the equaliser in the territory's 2-1 victory over Kuala Lumpur at the Hong Kong Sports Institute yesterday.
The win was a huge boost to Hong Kong before Sunday's World Cup qualifying Asian Group Six encounter against Thailand at the Hong Kong Stadium.
Tempest, who missed the first two World Cup qualifiers against South Korea and Thailand because of an injury to his right knee, has impressed national head coach Kwok Ka-ming.
'Dale came in after the interval and you can see he has done his job well,' said Kwok, who will announce his final 18-man squad today.
'He has his function in the team. He sparked off things for his teammates.' Tempest's close-range header came in the 77th minute from an Au Wai-lun cross, which levelled the game 1-1 after Liew Kim-tu scored for the Malaysians in the 42nd minute.
South China's Song Lianyong sealed the issue for Hong Kong with a powerful long-range shot in the dying minutes.
Kwok's lineup on Sunday is likely to be made up of the players who played the second half of yesterday's game - a 3-5-2 format with Tempest and Au up front.