Hamurn S. 4

Naxxar L. 2

Hamrun Spartans finished the first round commitments with an impressive display against Naxxar Lions, winning 4-2 and moving to second place, a mere point behind leaders Mqabba, and a point above rivals Marsa whom they meet in next Sunday’s derby.

The match was won and lost in the first half as the Spartans demolished their opponents scoring four goals in the process. Veteran captain Stefan Sultana left his mark scoring a hat trick. Naxxar were parctically inexistent in the first 45 minutes, in which the Spartans scored at will.

In the second half, Hamrun left the initiative to their opponents and the Lions managed to score two goals late in the game to make the score more respectable.

After 80 seconds Hamrun were already in the lead when Ryan Fenech, one of his side’s best players scored direct from a freekick. Five minutes later Hamrun doubled the score when Stefan Sultana headed home an Evano Briffa corner from the right.

On 12 minutes Naxxar had their only chance of the first half when Trevor Fenech’s shot went slightly high. Hamrun continued to dictate matters and scored the third goal in the 20th minute when Zuccaro failed to clear an Evano Briffa cross and Stefan Sultana made no mistake with a powerful shot.

On 27 minutes Ibrahim Tarek hit the crossbar and from the rebound Stefan Sultana was denied by Cini. On 40 minutes Cini had to surrender for the fourth time when a Tarek cross found Stefan Sultana completely unmarked, and the Hamrun captain headed home his third goal.

The second half was partially dominated by Naxxar who held the initiative for long stretches but only managed to score in the dying minutes. With eight minutes to go Jerry Ani scored after neatly dribbling past Slavchev and six minutes later the same player scored from an indirect freekick inside the penalty area after receiving from Trevor Fenech.

The same Ani, was unlucky at the start of the second period when he hit the crossbar with a powerful drive from the edge of the area.