This was Birkirkara’s chance to bounce back from their abysmal performance and embarrassing 5-1 defeat against Floriana the previous week. They aptly did this with three clear goals against Tarxien Rainbows, who keep struggling for form as their foreigners keep performing below par.
Besides lifting them back to second place, on equal points with Floriana, Birkirkara’s win might have helped to reconcile the team with its supporters, who turned out in lesser numbers at Ta’ Qali yesterday and hung the banners upside down as a sign of protest. Their reception to the players was luke warm as they exhibited placards demanding respect and they looked hardly enthusiastic even when the Stripes scored their goals.
Birkirkara’s starting line-up included four new players – Babatunde, Decesare, Zerafa and Bajada, with Karl Pulo, Ryan Scicluna and Emiliano Lattes all relegated to the bench and Andrei Agius serving suspension.
Not that Tarxien, with only one win in their last five matches, had any reason to be brimful of confidence. Yesterday they were adamant to give a good account of themselves, especially after the defeat against Valletta. They had Lee Galea back in defence after suspension instead of Caruana and also gave a start to Calabretta in the absence of Anonam. They were good in the first half but were undone by Birkirkara’s goals at the end of the first half and at the start of the second and faded out completely.
For large parts of the first half, Tarxien looked the more enterprising, even though the first real chance fell to Birkirkara after 11 minutes when Cilia’s mishit shot ended in the path of Babatunde, whose shot was blocked.
Pacheco’s headed goal on a Calabretta free kick was disallowed for an offside on 20 minutes and towards the half hour, Costa headed Vella’s corner against the foot of the post.
Pacheco had his shot blocked by keeper Bartolo before Vella Critien pounced on Bueno’s blocked shot but had his effort turned into a corner by the Birkirkara custodian.
Birkirkara had been spraying long balls forward for Babatunde, Galea and Cilia to exploit but keeper Cassar was up to task as he intercepted most of the high balls inside his area.
The Birkirkara trio though combined well to procure the goal that gave them the lead by halftime.
Babatunde crossed from the left for Galea to play the ball towards Trevor Cilia who beat keeper Cassar with a pulverising shot at the top of the net.
Birkirkara doubled their lead ten minutes into the second half. Michael Galea chased a long ball by Vukanac and as the keeper rushed off his line, he lobbed it over into an unguarded goal.
That goal sapped away all of Tarxien’s brittle confidence. Coach Coleiro was quick to make a double substitution, with Sergio Hili and Cristiano Rodriguez going in for Calabretta and Pacheco but they failed to engineer another good move despite all their huffing and puffing.
Birkirkara, who also put in Lattes for Cilia past the hour and had Bajada stretchered off ten minutes from the end, could play the ball between themselves in neat triangles. Tarxien’s offside plan frustrated their forwards time and again.
With six minutes remaining, Birkirkara scored their third through Ibrahim Babatunde who finished off Lattes’ pass with a low diagonal shot from the right.
In the late stages, keeper Cassar saved his side from further derision as he held out a fierce Lattes’ left foot shot.
Birkirkara M. Bartolo, I. Babatunde, A. Decesare, T. Cilia (E. Lattes), J. Zerafa, P. Fenech, R. Muscat, N. Vukanac, S. Bajada (R. Scicluna), M. Galea (R. Kumbrevicius), A. Buhagiar
Coach P. Zammit
Tarxien R D. Cassar, E. Pereira, G. Calabretta (S. Hili), R. Costa, S. Pacheco (C. Rodriguez), D. Bueno, L. Vella Critien (S. Sadowski), J. Vella, R. Mintoff, L. Galea, J. Grioli
Coach N. Coleiro
Referee C. Lautier
Asst.refs P. Agius, M. Mercieca
4th official E. Azzopardi
Scorers T. Cilia 45, M. Galea 55, I. Babatunde 84
Yellow cards A. Buhagiar
Player of the match M. Galea (Birkirkara)
TMI top 3 1. M. Galea 2. R. Muscat 3. D. Cassar
Attendance 706