Hong Kong football's endearing knack of combining the surreal with the spectacular came to the fore last night as Sing Tao and Yee Hope battled to an extraordinary 5-5 draw.
At the end of a topsy-turvy Ericsson League tussle at the Mongkok Stadium - which saw the lead change hands an amazing four times - it was Sing Tao's Tigers who had most to smile about after clawing their way back from 5-3 to down with 17 minutes to go to salvage a point.
Yee Hope striker Paul Ritchie - who had earlier contributed to the drama by scoring two second-half goals in two minutes to put his team 4-3 up - summed up the mood: 'I can safely say that is the strangest game I've ever played in.
'I've never seen anything like it. I'm still trying to work out how we could score five goals and not win the match.' In fact, had it not been for a last-minute goal-line clearance by Yee Hope defender Wan King-leung, Ritchie and his teammates might well have been left contemplating defeat last night.
Sing Tao had started the more confident of the two sides, and went into the lead on four minutes when Zeljko Gavrilovic took advantage of some non-existent Yee Hope marking to drill home the opener. The lead was short-lived however, and on eight minutes Yee Hope drew level when Wong Chi-keung rose unmarked from a corner to head in the softest of goals.
Seven minutes later Yee Hope took the lead with what turned out to be the best goal of the match, Yeung Kin-wah picking the ball up in midfield and letting rip with a 25-yard effort that thundered into the net.