The battle for the runner up position in the Blue Label National Hockey League will go to the final day of the League after The Hunters’ Tower beat Sliema Hs 4-2 on Sunday and caught them up in the League table. In the second game of the day Rabat Depiro beat Britannia Tours 2-0.
The final two games of the League, playing on Sunday, will see Sliema face Poiatti Qormi and The Hunters’ Tower take on newly crowned Champions Rabat Depiro. If parity of points persist then the two teams, Sliema and The Hunters Tower, will play-off the following Sunday for the runner-up position.
The Hunters’ Tower came into the game with their best formation and included Charles Micallef, who was returning to the squad after an absence of a few months due to work commitments. Sliema Hs, on the other hand, had a number of absentees notably Charles Cassar, Andrei Imbroll and Liam Pace.
The Hunters’ Tower started strongly and after seven minutes they took the lead as the Sliema defence failed to stop an Ivan Magro run into the dee and from his cross Edward Hughes had little difficulty in opening the score.
Sliema didn’t take long to draw level. From the first short corner of the day, Ray Bezzina’s hit was stopped on the line by Mark Camilleri but Shawn Mifsud was quick on the rebound and lifted the ball over Mizzi into the net.
The game was evenly balanced now and on 21 minutes Sliema took the lead, again from a short corner. The defence failed to clear a Michael Caruana Smith flick and Henry Cachia slipped the rebound in.
The Hunters’ Tower were having problems with their short corner set pieces although on the stroke of half time, Magro just failed to contact with a Camilleri through ball.
The second half again saw The Hunters’ Tower start strongly but their short corner set pieces continued to let them down. Sliema tried to break out with Simon Baldacchino and on 17 minutes they almost scored a third but Mizzi first saved Caruana Smith’s flick and then got to Cachia’s attempt from the rebound.
At this stage the pressure from The Hunters’ Tower was becoming relentless as Sliema were being forced to defend deeper and in the final fifteen minutes The Hunters’ Tower turned the game round.
In the 20th minute David Evans slotted in from a tight angle after receiving from Magro. Eight minutes later, Evans anticipated his marker and fired in first time to put his side in the lead and one minute from time he got his hat trick when he picked up a rebound following an Agius Darmanin attempt at goal.
The second game of the day was typical end of season stuff. Both sides had nothing to play for and coupled with the heat and the fact that they both had a number of players missing meant that the game never reached great heights.
Rabat dominated most of the game while Britannia Tours WH did their best to limit the damage. The goals came one in each half and both came form Jonathan Seychell. The match was also characterized by three missed penalties.
Chris Bugeja and Jeffrey Aquilina missed for Rabat while Luke Busuttil Leaver missed for Britannia Tours right at the end.
These two teams will now meet again in the Preliminary round of the K.O. competition, as Rabat Depiro start their attempt for the quadruple crown. The KO starts on Sunday 7 May.
The winner of this tie will face Poiatti Qormi in the semi-finals. The other semi-final will see The Hunters’ Tower against Sliema Hs. The semi-finals are schedules for 14 May.