傑志周六火併東方 勢要重登聯賽榜首位置

Kitchee will head back to the premier league circuit this Saturday with an early season heavy-weight clash against fellow title-chaser Eastern in Mongkok Stadium. The match will kick-off at 5:30pm. Although any talk regarding title chances at this early season remains largely premature. Yet this weekend’s clash between Kitchee and Eastern will see two legitimate title-chasers facing each other for the first time this season. While picking up maximum points from the fixture will remain as the main goal for the two teams, there is little doubt that both sides will try to emerge as the winner in order to gain any possible psychological advantage over the other for the rest of the season. Kitchee currently trails Eastern and Hong Kong Pegasus in the premier league table but has one game in hand. Despite the tough loss against South China last weekend in the Hong Kong Jockey Club Community Shield, Kitchee players seem to have put the defeat behind them in recent training sessions and remain largely upbeat. Kitchee head coach Abraham Garcia is satisfied with the team’s performance in the Community Cup but would like to see his charges capitalizing on their chances in front of the opposing goal. “We performed quite well in the Community Cup and successfully played the Kitchee brand of football. While some might blame our Community Cup defeat on bad luck, I much prefer to head back to the training ground with the team and work with them closely on converting their scoring chances,” said the Spaniard. “Eastern has a lot of great players in their squad and this is going to be an exciting game for the fans. However, the most important thing for us this weekend will be maintaining the same performance level that we had against South China. Of course, we will need to find the back of the net as well,” offered the Kitchee chief. Matthew Lam, Kitchee’s midfield anchor, believes the team is starting to gel after all the early season battles. “We are a strong side and have a lot of players who can find the back of the net. It is only a matter of time for us to start scoring again. We might have lost out on the Community Cup but I firmly believe the positives outweighed the negatives on the occasion. Therefore our confidence is still very much intact heading into the weekend’s game.”