Kitchee laid down a marker for the new Hong Kong Premier League campaign with a fully-merited 1-0 victory over Eastern in front of a bumper crowd on Friday night.
The 2,706 attendance inside Mong Kok Stadium for a thoroughly watchable contest was larger than any gate for a top-flight game last season.
Twelve-times champions Kitchee gave first starts to four of their summer signings, but it was Cheng Chin-lung, a 27-year-old graduate from the club’s youth system, who made the breakthrough after 35 minutes.
Jay Haddow sped onto a return pass from Ruslan Mingazov to serve up a cross that Cheng carefully headed past Yapp Hung-fai. It was the midfielder’s first top-flight goal since the opening day of the 2022-23 campaign.
Eastern No 1 Yapp had earlier brilliantly tipped behind from Spanish debutant Adrian Revilla to deny Kitchee a fabulous team goal. Mingazov expertly cushioned a raking cross-field pass from left-back Callum Beattie, before feeding striker Revilla, who promptly steered on target from close range.
Yapp flew to his right to prevent Kendy Ikegami from marking his debut with a goal from outside the box, and Mingazov headed off target after Jordan Lam Lok-kan found his fellow winger from the left.
