St George's 1
Senglea A 2
(match abandoned)
The much awaited Cottonera derby between Senglea and St Georg'es was abandoned with 13 minutes to go after a St George's supporter attacked assistant referee Alan Camilleri and the referee Adrian Casha abandoned the match. This incident happened after Senglea scored their second goal, a clean and regular goal, and the incident was a real surprise to everyone. It was a pity as the match played in front of a bumper crowd, and resulted in a very keenly contested tussle.
St George's were dominant in the opening minutes but failed to open the score, mainly thanks to some splendid saves from the Senglea goalkeeper Attard.
Attard saved instinctively in the 13th minute blocking a close range shot from Ewurun, and three minutes later Attard had to dive sideways to stop a dangerous Brincat grounder.
On 29 minutes Senglea took the lead in their first real danger when Kenneth Abela received from Spiteri and beat Gatt from just inside the area.
St George's obtained the equaliser on 56 minutes when Darmanin passed to Ewurun who scored with a grounder. The match was now controlled by the Saints who had shots from Spiteri and Brincat missing the target. On 77 minutes Senglea scored a rather soft goal when Bonello beat Gatt who was surely at fault in this action.
Then the match was abandoned following the aggression on assistant referee Alan Camilleri, an aggression that could have easily been avoided.
Mqabba 0
Marsa 1
League leaders suffered their second consecutive defeat against a highly motivated Marsa side.
The result leaves Mqabba at the top but Senglea, who in actual fact won the derby against St. George’s, now joined Mqabba on 25 points with Mosta and Hamrun and the same Marsa back in the hunt.
Marsa started like a house on fire with Gilbert Martin in irresistible fashion, and the Mqabba goalkeeper had to be at his best to save his side. However Martin was unlucky when he hit the crossbar with Calleja beaten.
Mqabba came back with a band on 22 minutes when Muscat hit the side netting and minutes later the same player beat Attard in the Marsa goal but the ball slammed against the crossbar. Now Mqabba were playing better with Anywanna dribbling past Attard only to be stopped by Darren Vella. Marsa goalkeeper effected the best save of the first half when he blocked a point blank header by Busuttil. Just before the break a dangerous Lee Grima shot missed the base of the upright.
At the start of the second half Marsa scored the all important winner when Joseph Casha headed in from close range a good Micallef cross.
Mqabba’s reaction was rather weak and Marsa almost doubled with their star striker Gilbert Martin whose lob missed the upright.