An understrength Valletta side, bereft of Dyson Falzon, Claude Mattocks and Massimo Grima and, of course, the still injured Gilbert Agius, and with Bondin, Forace and Camilleri relegated to the bench, was still good enough to beat First Division side St Patrick, themselves without midfielder Simon Zerafa, and advance to the second round of the U*Bet FA Trophy.

Although Valletta's win was a deserved one, the final scoreline flatters them. Dominant throughout against utterly poor opponents, who failed to put a decent shot on target, Valletta were profligate in a fixture that lacked passion, urgency or commitment.

A heavy downpour at the start of the match, made the surface somewhat slippery. As expected Valletta enjoyed the lion's share of possession in the first half but struggled to make it count in the face of an organised St Patrick side, defending in numbers, at times putting nine men behind the ball.

Monesterolo hit the woodwork in the early stages but Valletta's play lacked cohesion. Their lead towards the half hour came almost by accident as the Saints defender Brandon Bonnici miskicked his clearance on Agius's cross from the left and the ball skidded past the surprised keeper Cassar.

That goal might have somewhat discouraged St Patrick who survived further derision on 40 minutes when another Agius cross from the left was missed by friend and foe until finally Monesterolo thumped his shot against the upright.

With half time looming, Valletta doubled their lead. Giglio played a through ball to Frank Tamile whose shot was blocked by the grounded keeper only for the ball to rebound again off the Valletta player and over the goal line.

Although St Patrick showed some inclination to go forward in the second half, play remained scrappy, littered with misplaced passes and lacking decent finish from either side.

Valletta scored their third goal on 73 minutes as Zammit sent a testing cross from the right for skipper Stefan Giglio to beat the keeper with a routine header.

With St Patrick looking aenemic in attack, Valletta continued to control the proceedings and Monesterolo was again unlucky as his low shot was held out by the upright.Two minutes from time, St Patrick keeper Cassar fouled Magro inside the area to concede a penalty, which Tamile tucked away to make Valletta's win look more emphatic.

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Valletta: A. Hogg, J. Grioli (N. Curmi), K. Scicluna, J. Mifsud, B. Agius, H. Backhaus, K. Fenech, S. Giglio, S. Monesterolo (D. Grima), I. Zammit (K. Magro), F. Tamile

St Patrick: D. Cassar, R. Cassar, A. Buttigieg, M. Fleri Soler, C. Grech, K. Micallef (K. Bonnici), M. Pullicino, S. Magro, T. Caruana (A. Pendry), B. Bonnici (C. Micallef), C. Obinwanne

Referee: K. Azzopardi Asst.refs: J. Camilleri, M. Debono 4th official: P. Caruana

Scorers: B. Bonnici (og), F. Tamile (2) 1 pen, S. Giglio

Yellow cards: K. Fenech, M. Fleri Soler, C. Grech