Scoring goals is the best way to make supporters forgive and forget. Mario Fontanella spurned a hatful of glaring opportunities before scoring the only and winning goal for Floriana to sink poor Naxxar Lions, anchored at the bottom of the table.
Luis Oliveira enjoyed his first victories as Floriana coach in successive games, after beating Qormi, the previous week.
This fourth defeat leaves Naxxar to reflect on their poor start to the new season. The Premier League table makes brutal reading for the Lions, winless after four matches, with only one goal scored and 11 conceded.
By contrast, Floriana appear primed for upward mobility although they must improve their finishing.
It was a game of mediocre standards but a profusion of narrow escapes by Naxxar Lions as Floriana were profligate on too many occasions until Fontanella's goal separated the two teams at the end.
Naxxar only countered with menace whenever the pacy Oussou won possession but that was rarely and far between.
Naxxar coach Stefano Grima made three changes from the side that went down heavily against Hibernians the previous week. Regular goalkeeper Julian Azzopardi was not even included in the squad, making way for Luke Pecorella as Cardozo and Ryan Cassar were exiled to the bench with Ishmael Grech and Serbian forward Sead Hadzibulic given starts.
Brazilian Juninho Cabral was given a start ahead of Mauricio Villa for Floriana but there was still no place for Steve Pisani and Matteo Piciollo in the initial line-up.
The Greens were the first out of the blocks and mounted a couple of attacks through long balls towards the Naxxar area, but with Mario Fontanella struggling to produce any killing instinct in front of goal, his two tame headers within the first quarter hour were easy prey for keeper Pecorella.
Floriana failed to capitalise on Naxxar's sloppy defending and carelessness at the back. Towards the half hour, when Scicluna cleared the ball short in Chiesa's path, the Argentine contrived to shoot wastefully wide.
Floriana's best chance fell on 35 minutes. Juninho went past Scicluna from the right but his angled shot was turned into a corner by the grounded keeper Pecorella.
And deep into two minutes of the half's added time, following good work by Juninho from the left, Monticelli's low drive took a slight deflection and clipped the base of the post to the keeper's left.
The second-half followed a similar pattern to the first, with Floriana again making the early running but fluffing chances galore, with Fontanella the main culprit. Chiesa put Fontanell through. He evaded the onrushing Naxxar keeper and steered the ball towards goal, oly for defender Grech to clear on the line. Two minutes later, another chance for Fontanella as the Naxxar defenders dropped the ball at his feet. Keeper Pecorella responded well with a smart save.
On the other end, Oussou galloped down the right on a rare Naxxar break, and crossed for the unmarked Lattes to shoot at goal but keeper Calleja Cremona turned into a corner.
Pecorella again denied Juninho on 56 minutes, before Floriana put in Matteo Piciollo for Conor Borg and Naxxar responded by introducing Richard Cardozo instead of Lattes.
Naxxar's defence was finally breached on 77 minutes. From a Juninho corner from the right, the ball was deflected towards Mario Fontanella who managed to put his effort on target, to the relief of the few scores of Floriana supporters present at Ta' Qali.