Last Sunday saw the beginning of the local season.

Two matches were played: The Super Cup Final between Rabat Depiro and Laferla Insurance White Hart, and the opening match of the Challenge Cup between Floriana YS and Qormi HC.

In the Super Cup Final Rabat got the better of White Hart by the odd goal in five.

White Hart could not have had a better start with a goal by Paul Torpiano on the eighth minute. He beat Azzopardi in goal with an angled hit after having received a pass from D. Agius.

Rabat immediately retaliated with a series of attacks but had to wait till the 26th to level the score through an opportunistic goal by Mark Bugeja.

A minute later, however, White Hart again took the lead when Luke Borg Costanzi hit in from the top of the D following a short corner action.

On the resumption, White Hart had two occasions to go further ahead: first it was David Agius who hit just wide from a tight angle after having rounded Azzopardi, and a minute later Tua again went past Azzopardi but was tackled in time just before concluding. For these two misses White Hart paid dearly. On the 40th Rabat equalised again through Bugeja, who concluded a fine move between Kevin Micallef and Josef Antonelli.

The game was now swinging from one end to the other with Rabat always showing more strength and discipline in their attacks. With eight minutes to go, Josef Antonelli pounced on a loose ball inside the White Hart defending area and dribbled his way past three defenders before setting up Michael Galea at the far post to pot in the winner.

In the second match of the day Qormi beat Floriana YS with a goal in each half.

Qormi could have won by a bigger margin had it not been for some splendid goalkeeping by Waylin Abdilla.

However he was beaten on the 30th minute by Jonathan Borg. On the 51st minute, and against the run of play, Luke Busuttil Leaver had a golden opportunity to equalise when, all alone in front of goal, he failed to beat Ramon Chircop .

On the 65th minute, Qormi put the issue beyond doubt when Julian Zahra concluded a good move between Stephen Tanti and Jonathan Borg.

Tomorrow’s matches for the Challenge Cup will be; White Hart vs Sliema H.S from Group B and Rabat Depiro vs Floriana YS from group A.