Kitchee call up big guns in bid to sink Eastern

KITCHEE go into today's Viceroy Cup quarter-final tie with Eastern at Mongkok Stadium as underdogs - but confident of becoming the first side to beat the champions-elect this season.

Kitchee, who are on $10,000 a man to win through to the semi-finals, hand a debut to former England winger Mark Barham and towering striker Damian Webber, who is on loan from English non-league club Crawley.

Barham, who earned two England caps in 1983 in his days with Norwich City, will play wide on the left of a four-man midfield, with Webber up front alongside Robert Spence, who was preferred to Gary Williams.

And they are looking for the six-feet, five-inch frame of Webber to cause havoc in an Eastern defence which has conceded only four goals in 17 league and cup games this season.

Eastern's leading scorer, 17-goal Dale Tempest, said his team were well aware of the dangers they faced.

''Everyone wants to beat us at the moment and Kitchee have been offered a lot of money to do it, so they will not be lacking in enthusiasm,'' said Tempest, who has been on target in each of Eastern's last three games.

''For us it's just another game because now we are expected to beat everyone.

''I think we've done well to keep it going because teams seem happy to lose 1-0 or 2-0 against us. When we go in front now teams are not changing the way they play to try and get it back, whereas earlier in the season they would give us more space and we would win by four or five.

''It's a case of us having to play the way we know we can. We have to concentrate on ourselves and produce what we normally do.

''The Mongkok pitch is a great leveller - but we could not have had better results coming into this match.'' Eastern have so many dangerous players that it makes it impossible for opponents to man-mark them all. While Jon Widdows will watch Tempest, this leaves his 14-goal strike partner, Paul Nixon, to roam free, with Ross Greer on the left, Lee Kin-wo on the right and Tam Siu-wai through the middle.

Viceroy Cup holders Ernest Borel, meanwhile, will recall Craig Foster for their quarter-final tie with Kui Tan on Tuesday.

He was left out of the side which lost 1-0 to Instant-Dict on Thursday for disciplinary reasons but will return in the midfield alongside Tony Finnigan, Wu Yiu-kwok and Keith Thompson on the left. Peter Murray and Au Wai-lun will play up front.

Club chairman Thomas Tang said Borel would de-register goalkeeper Tim Dalton and striker Raphael Meade.