Double Flowers did teammate Lee Ying-wai proud yesterday, beating Hong Kong Football Club 3-2 at Tsing Yi just days after the teenager suffered a serious neck injury in a reserve match.
Lee, 18, dislocated two sections of his cervical spine when he landed on his neck after clashing heads with Fukien's Alejandro Ramirez. Lee has already undergone one operation and will need another in about eight weeks. It could be a year before he plays again.
The Double Flowers players and staff dedicated yesterday's First Division win to Lee - after each goal they proudly displayed T-shirts bearing goodwill messages to their stricken friend.
However, while player-coach Chiu Chung-man was happy with Double Flowers' third win of the season, he was less pleased with his young team's performance.
'It is obvious that, compared to the beginning of the season, our players have shown a lot of improvement in communicating with each other,' Chiu said. 'But we still have a lot to learn about finishing and maintaining defensive discipline.
'Our poor finishing almost cost us - we missed a handful of sitters while we were leading 3-1. With the number of chances we had we could have easily won by a much bigger margin. Our forwards need to learn to keep their composure in front of goal.'
