HENRY BRINCAT

Valletta maintained their impressive string of positive results on Sunday as they beat Msida St Joseph easily, but there was no comfort at all for Birkirkara who were beaten by Hibernians.

It was Valletta’s ninth positive and consecutive result as they tasted sweet revenge for the 4-1 drubbing received in the first round match – their last of two defeats suffered in the opening three matches of the first round.

Since then, the Citizens have gone from strength to strength and are now occupying top place with Sliema Wanderers who, however, have their postponed match against Lija (to be played some day next month) in hand.

Valletta have collected new fewer that 25 points in the last nine matches out of a possible 27 and this confirms that they are the team of the moment apart from being the team to beat.

The boys, under the direction of JJ Aquilina and Martin Scicluna from the sidelines and by the splendid Gilbert Agius on the field of play, are performing wonders.

But it is no surprise they are occupying such an exalted position. They have worked hard for it and although the team possesses no super stars, apart from Gilbert Agius, their fighting spirit and determination is the envy of all the other clubs.

The depleted Saints from Msida had no reply to the Citizens especially after the Lilywhites took an early 2-0 lead. Even though Daniel Nwoke pulled one back to give some hope to his team, the citizens were not to be denied as their superiority on the field of play was turned into goals in the second half – three without any reply from Msida.

Msida remain firmly anchored on the 13-point mark but will have to show better form if they are to challenge seriously for a place in the top six.

On their part, Valletta are already almost sure of their place in the Championship Pool. They are now four points ahead of rivals Birkirkara who slipped once again in a 4-2 defeat against Hibernians.

The Stripes are passing through one of their worst patches in recent years and they have allowed their defeat against Valletta a few weeks ago to be their biggest concern at such an early stage in the competition. That defeat has certainly upstaged their applecart.

It is evident that not all is going well within their ranks and unless they roll their sleeves and work up to their full potential, it will be difficult to see them featuring as main challengers for the title come the second phase of the competition.

After Valletta’s defeat of Sliema the previous week, I – and many others – expected them to go all out to take advantage of the situation to remain close to the leaders as much as possible.

They started on the right note as they took a 2-0 lead but a defensive lapse allowed Hibs to get back into the match, Terence Scerri making no mistake.

The turning point, however, was the sending off of George Mallia early in the second half. The international midfielder’s absence proved to be fatal and in 10 men, the Stripes had to suffer Hibs’ continuous pressure with the Paolites finally rewarded for their efforts.

They not only equalised but went on to score two further goals in a dramatic finish in which Birkirkara went close to saving the match before the Paolites scored their fourth and final goal which sealed the issue in their favour.

Birkirkara certainly have a mountain to climb following this defeat and coach Stephen Azzopardi obviously has a lot of work to do to bring back harmony in a side which is lacking any form of commitment and determination at present.

On the other hand, I could not but notice the improvement registered by the Paolites in their recent matches. After having been unlucky on several occasions, this time they were rewarded for a grand second half performance.

One certainly has to commend a team which manages to turn a 2-0 deficit into a 4-2 win although they had a 39-minute advantage of playing with numerical superiority.

Robert Gatt and Michael Woods have been working hard to get their players to these levels, even if they had to do without the two Mifsuds – Adrian and Miguel – who have joined Sliema.

Now they are sitting pretty, just two points behind the same Birkirkara and well within sight of a place in the Championship Pool.

On Friday, Floriana almost missed the point once again when facing bottom-placed St Patrick, but Nicolo Baldacchino saved their blushes by scoring twice in the second half to turn defeat into a victory.

Baldacchino proved to be the Greens’ saviour as they squeezed three points with a late winner and they can now breathe more freely having moved five points over Pieta and six over Marsaxlokk and Msida though Pieta and Marsaxlokk have a game in hand.

St Patrick, for the umpteenth time, have seen the chance of a positive result vanish into thin air as they suffered their tenth defeat of the season in 12 matches.

Their performance, however, was quite encouraging, especially in the first half, when they were clearly the better team on the field of play.

Yet, they had to suffer almost continuous pressure from the Greens in the second half and this brought about their downfall.