Champions Kowloon Cricket Club A opened their Hong Kong First Division title campaign with a flourish yesterday, but showed signs of vulnerability in a 6-2 victory over Nav Bharat A at Happy Valley. KCC, who won the treble for the first time in their history last season, were still happy to grab the points as they made a winning start to their league title defence. Arif Ali scored a brace of goals and KCC showed their scoring depth with goals from Paul Bailey, Ken Wong, Deric Leung and Neil Johnson. 'You have to be pleased with our victory, although we struggled a bit in the first half. 'It was only during the last 20 minutes of the game that we clearly were in control,' said KCC captain Ishtiaq Khan, who helped the Cricketers to the league, Holland Cup and the Guru Nanak Trophy titles last season. Nav Bharat, always a danger and hungry to recapture glories of the past, replied with two goals - one from the penalty spot that was buried by Siver Singh and another scored by Amarjeet Singh. 'Everything is alright with us so far. We had a few injuries but we managed in the end. Nav Bharat's left-winger, Jimmy [Singh] did most of the damage. We couldn't mark him out but we still got the points in the end,' said Khan. Khan said KCC were struggling 'a bit' at the back due to the absence of Hong Kong national captain Farooq Saeed, who was out of town. 'Farooq is a very important player at the back but unfortunately he couldn't make the game so our defence wasn't so good,' said Kan. 'Also we were missing right-half [Richard] Hogg who has left Hong Kong. Farooq will be back next week so we should be alright next time.' KCC will play lightweights Elite next week confident of the points after Elite lost to Valley A 1-0 in the day's only other match in the First Division. KCC's first true test will be against Pakistan Association A in two weeks. 'Pakistan Association are always tough to play against. They can score an upset anytime and I heard they are stronger this season,' said Khan.
