Hibernians and Qormi won a point apiece in a clueless match that failed to reach any heights. Engulfed by the fear of losing, both sides opted for a point rather than risk losing all three. With defences allowing few openings, there were even lesser scoring opportunities.

Both teams were in dire need of points to enable them lift themselves from the relegation zone. For Hibernians, this was a chance to improve after their abysmal performance and defeat against Vittoriosa Stars in the previous match. They now remain winless in six consecutive matches.

Coach Miller deemed it fit to make some radical changes, dropping Andrew Cohen and Edward Herrera to the bench, with the returning Pulis and Levnaic given a start.

Mat Clarke was moved in front of the defence with Xuereb and Pearson their two centre backs. Levnaic and Gauci played wide in midfield with Triston Caruana supporting the main striker McManus.

Qormi had also lost their previous match with the last shot of the game against Floriana and coach Azzopardi also made a rift of changes to his side. Ben Camilleri, George Mallia and Vinicius Da Silva were all exiled to the bench. Matthew Bartolo, Stefan Giglio and Hojung Kang were given the nod instead.

But the performance of the two teams left much to be desired in the first 45 minutes, played high on energy but low on creativity and precision.

Much running with little purpose and a litany of passes going astray did little to improve the poor quality of football produced and both goalkeepers did not need to be in attendance for the first half.

The first shot on goal came past the half hour when a McManus drive was blocked into a corner and before halftime Caruana failed to connect to a McManus cross inside the Qormi area.

The execution of set pieces from Qormi were also of poor quality with Joseph Farrugia failing to make out anything of his several free kicks.

Things did not improve much in the second period, although Bjedov’s grounder just missed the target and when the Qormi defence failed to clear a Gauci deep cross, Levnaic’s shot was cleared out by Sammut.

Towards the hour, Hibernians put in Herrera for Hart and later Cohen for Caruana.

Qormi also sent in George Mallia but he was forced to leave the pitch after less than ten minutes with muscle problems.

Bello Osagie remained Qormi’s main threat, although seen in flashes. He shot Mallia’s pass off target and then headed a Joseph Farrugia corner from the left just over,

On the other end, keeper Matthew Farrugia fisted out Herrera’s insidious corner from the right as the goalless stalemate prevailed till the end.

Hibernians: M.Muscat, A. Xuereb, J. Pearson, A. Pulis, M. Clarke, R.Hart (E. Herrera), P. McManus, T. Caruana (A. Cohen), M. Gauci, Z. Levnaic (B. Kristensen), M. Tabone

Coach: M. Miller

Qormi: M. Farrugia, J. Vandelannoite, S. Giglio, R. Sammut, M. Bartolo, K. Bjedov (J. Chetcuti), J. Farrugia, A. Bello Osagie, J. Bondin, C. Frendo, H. Kang (G. Mallia) (K. Fenech)

Coach: S. Azzopardi

Referee: C. Pisani

Asst.refs: A. Camilleri, C. Francalanza

4th official: F. Zammit

Yellow cards: M. Tabone, R. Hart, Z. Levnaic

Player of the match: J.Vandelannoite (Qormi)

TMI top 3: 1. J. Vandelannoite 2. Z. Levnaic 3. A. Xuereb