Mosta notched the first win of the season beating St Patrick with two second half goals. Both teams made several changes from last season, and both confirmed that they have all the ingredients for a promising season.

Mosta deserved this victory, contriving to miss a penalty in the first half. At the other end, St Patrick disappointed especially in attack.

Mosta's best chance came on 19 minutes when Eric Saliba, in his debut for St Patrick, handled the ball following a shot from Brian Agius, with referee Arciola awarding the penalty. But from the penalty spot Philip Camilleri's shot slammed against the base of the upright.

The second half started on the same pattern until Mosta forged ahead on 56 minutes. It was an Ives Bilocca strike from the edge of the area that beat goalkeeper Azzopardi for Mosta's lead. Seconds later Mosta went close again with another Bilocca shot being saved by Azzopardi.

St Patrick tried to push everything forward, but Mosta's defence was never really put under pressure.

Three minutes from time Mosta striker Rufai left his mark in his debut scoring a well taken goal.

Hamrun S. 0

Senglea A. 0

Senglea and Hamrun started their season with a low key encounter that never reached high standards. Senglea, who played the last 30 minutes with ten players, could have snatched a dramatic winner in injury time, but it would have been unfair on the Spartans.

Hamrun showed the better ideas, but lacked the necessary punch up front. Stefan Sultana tried in vain to make an impact, but to no avail, whilst Gaetan Spiteri was far from his best form.

As for Senglea they defended for long stretches but conceded very few scoring chances to their opponents. However, both Senglea and Hamrun have to improve on yesterday's showing if they wish to have a say in the fight for the honours.

Hamrun showed their best in the first minutes with new signing Timotic's shot skimming the crossbar following a Rupert Mangion freekick. Veteran Stefan Sultana, although not very agile, showed that he could still be lethal in front of goal when his scorcher was brilliantly saved by George Attard.

Minutes later Gaetan Spiteri shot slightly wide from the edge of the area. After these promising minutes the Spartans lost their grip on midfield and never tested Attard again.

The second half failed to produce better fare, with Hamrun always having the edge. On 57 minutes Senglea were reduced to ten players when Clint Caruana was sent off for dissent.

Senglea found the much needed space to create some scoring chances near the end. Their best try came in injury time when Chima Dozie hit the side netting giving the Spartans supporters a big scare.

Qormi 1

Vittoriosa S. 1

This match between the two newly promoted sides turned out to be the best match of the four pleyed yesterday. Credit goes to both sets of players who gave their hearts out in this spirited performance that produced an exciting match.

The result rewards both teams as neither deserved to leave the pitch empty handed.

They produced an interesting and spirited first half, with both sides fighting for every ball. Vittoriosa had the edge at the start going near to opening the score with a powerful Privitelli drive being deflected by the Qormi keeper against the crossbar.

On 34 minutes Vittoriosa took the lead when Robert Adami headed powerfully in a good Ivan Zammit corner.

Qormi were back on level terms at the start of the second half.

Joseph Farrugia curled a perfect freekick that slammed against the crossbar, and Carmel Formosa nipped in to head home the rebound.

The ex-international made amends minutes later when he started a good move towards Thomas who squared to Lagana who had his shot blocked by Camilleri.

Tarxien 3

Naxxar 3

Tarxien obtained a dramatic equaliser in the dying minutes of the match, when Naxxar looked cruising home to an easy victory. But the Lions dramatically lacked the physical fitness and faded away completely in the dying minutes.

Tarxien, fielding several new faces, were outclassed in the first half by a Naxxar side that was practically unchanged from last year apart from the inclusion of Anizoba who replaced Dozie.

On 31 minutes, Naxxar went ahead, when Anizoba shot low into the net from 20 metres for a well taken goal. However seven minutes later Tarxien were back on level terms with a rather gift goal by the Naxxar defence. New signing Ryan Darmanin was brought down by a mistimed tackle by goalie Agius. From the resultant penalty Alan Tabone made no mistake to equalise.

Just before the interval Tarxien almost took the lead when Ramon Schembri almost committed an own goal in an attempt to anticipate Simon Shead.

After barely 40 seconds from the start of the second half, Naxxar were back in the lead when Glenn Magri passed to Gilbert Camilleri who shot low into the net from ten metres. Ten minutes later Naxxar were on velvet when Gilbert Camilleri scored his brace direct from a freekick, with Tarxien goalkeeper Curmi much to blame, trying to kick the ball from the goal line rather than trying to save Camilleri's shot.

Tarxien surged desperately forward in the closing minutes and nine minutes from time they reduced the arrears when Okoro passed to the unmarked Darmanin who beat Agius with a perfect grounder. Two minutes later Tarxien were on level terms when Naxxar keeper Agius fumbled a Grech shot and Simon Shead was on hand to score the equaliser.