Kitchee Aims to Reinforce Leading Position in Midw

Kitchee will head back to the Henderson Sapling Cup battleground on Wednesday night by facing Kwoon Chung Southern in Kowloon Bay Park for an exciting cup clash. The match between the two Group A sides will kick-off at 8:00pm. Kitchee currently paces all Group A sides with one win and one draw from two matches, first drawing Eastern and then defeating Yuen Long. Youngsters such as Ngan Cheuk-pan, Harima Hirokane and Law Tsz-chun have all seen action in the tournament and should potentially receive more playing time in the group stage. Alessandro Leonardo has been in dominating form in the Sapling Cup with a well-earned hat-trick in the last game. Kitchee supporters will be eager to see whether the lanky striker can duplicate his magic this time around against Kwoon Chung Southern, who is currently sitting on the third spot in the group. Young stalwart Ngan Cheuk-pan reveals he is very much ready to take on any assignment given by the Kitchee coaching staffs. “Compared to the early season, I am now much more used to the speed and rhythm of playing in the first team, thus making the whole team operating more smoothly when I am on the field,” said the young midfielder. “I am aware that the team has run into some sort of an injury crisis and the coaches have actually told me to get ready for hearing my name called upon on any given time.” Promising forward Harima Hirokane echoes on Ngan’s comments and declares his readiness to take the field for Kitchee. “I saw the fixture list earlier and knew we would be having our hands full at this time, therefore I really made it a point to concentrate more during recent practices, so that when I get the chance to play, I can be a help to the team,” explained Hirokane. “Kwoon Chung Southern has a lot of players who know the Kitchee playing style well. We really need to get our heads squarely focused on this game to avoid any potential upset.”