Neptunes Vodafone 14

Sirens Hard Rock Café 3

(3-1, 3-0, 4-1, 4-1)

The reigning champions were in annihilating mood against fellow title chasing Sirens as the reds practically wiped out Sirens' efforts to stay in the title race so as to win with a large margin.

Sergio Afric's choice of defence cover was one of the main factors that led to Neptunes' win (which left them with a two-point lead over arch rivals Sliema) as Sirens found it extremely difficult to penetrate the tight zone covering and beat Nicky Gouder in the reds' goal and as time went by they looked a subdued lot.

After this defeat, Sirens are now out of the title race and will surely now put their eyes on the knock-out competition.

Steve Camilleri, who, together with Michele Stellini and Matthew Pisani, scored a hat-trick, opened the score on a Cutajar man-up after two minutes. Left-handed duo Stellini and David Camilleri then scored a goal each to make it 3-0 after six minutes.

Half a minute later, on a D. Camilleri exclusion, Hungarian Tamaz Merxs beat Gouder with a powerful diagonal shot but Sirens had to wait over 15 minutes before they could find their opponents' net once again.

In the second session Sirens missed on three man-ups (with Neptunes having D. Camilleri on two personal faults) while Neptunes increased their lead to 6-1.

Serbian world-class player Vladimir Vujasinovic scored from the left with Sirens abit late on recovery and then Matthew Pisani scored a brace, the first off a nice low-shot from the left and the second on a Privitera man-up.

Early in the third session Merxs fouled S. Camilleri for a penalty and Merxs' second major fault and from the five-metre mark, Vujasinovic did not miss.

Less than a minute later, Stellini scored with a nice bounce shot off the left post and then it was John Brownrigg who made it 9-1 after he found open space on the right.

On a Gravina exclusion, Merxs managed to end Sirens' goal-drought but before the session's end, S. Camilleri scored a penalty after a Mercieca foul.

The last session commenced with David Cutajar scoring for Sirens for 10-3. Pisani notched his hat-trick when he lobbed over Grech after outsmarting Montfort.

After Privitera was very unlucky to have an effort hitting the post with Gouder beaten, Neptunes broke clear and S. Camilleri had no difficulty to beat Grech face-to-face.

In the last session Afric put in all his benchers, Ryan Sciortino, Jordan Camilleri, Giorgio Sammut and Luke Attard, with the latter having the satisfaction to net his side's final goal (after Stellini had registered his third goal) on a Cutajar exclusion.

Neptunes: N. Gouder, N. Lanzon, J. Camilleri, J. Brownrigg 1, V. Vujasinovic 2, S. Camilleri 3, L. Attard 1, D. Camilleri 1, S. Gravina, R. Sciortino, G. Sammut, M. Stellini 3, M. Pisani 3.

Sirens: A. Grech, P. Fava, T. Merxs 2, P. Privitera, J. Rizzo Naudi, R. Scerri, J. Borg, D. Cutajar 1, K. Montfort, C. Zammit, C. Mercieca, R. Attard, E. Arrigo.

Refs: S. Pinato, M. Dalli

Marsascala 7-Up 21

Otters 12

(5-4, 5-2, 5-0, 6-6)

As fully expected, Marsascala managed to beat bottom-placed Otters in yesterday's second division encounter. With this win, the greens now join Exiles at the top of the standings.

Italian Fabio Valenti had a grand field day netting more than half his side's goals when he finished with eleven strikes with four in the first session and three respectively in the final two sessions.

Otters had a good start and managed to go three times in the lead, albeit a marginal one, in the first three minutes through goals from Tibor Simon, George Zammit and Stephan Grech.

The Gozitans, despite falling behind, managed to stay in the game till midway in the second session at 6-8.

However, the greens, who had John Licari returning to the side (he was suspended since June 2006) quickly found their pace and started distancing themselves from their opponents with seven consecutive goals.

The last session, with M'Scala home and dry, was a balanced affair with both sides sharing 12 goals with Otters winning three penalties, two of which were netted by Chris Saliba.

Valenti kept up his goal-getting rhythm with team-mate Mark Borg Spiteri scoring a hat-trick before being fouled out late in the match.

M'Scala: I. Bugeja, J. Cutajar, S. Farrugia, A. Galea, M. Borg Spiteri 3, L. Griscti 1, J. Licari 2, M. Spiteri, S. Micallef 1, R. Cutajar 1, D. Cassar 1, F. Valenti 11, D. Ciappara 1.

Otters: R. Grech, D. Saliba, G. Zammit 2, S. Grech 4, S. Cutajar 1, D. Saliba, P. Saliba, K. Mizzi, L. Cachia, C. Saliba 2, T. Simon 3, G. Xuereb, E. Farrugia.

Refs: R. Spiteri, M. Caruana