Floriana 0

Hibernians 2

Jackson Lima scored a brace in the second half to give Hibernians victory against understrength Floriana, down to ten men for almost the last half hour.

Hibernians’ performance was far from full bodied yesterday, as they visibly felt the fatigue of playing two matches within three days, but good enough to see them share top spot with Valletta, as the latter were held to a draw.

Hibernians made only one change from the side who beat Sliema Wanderers on Wednesday, with Dias given the nod ahead of Vandelannoite. But they struggled in the first half against opponents, whom they had only drawn with in this season’s previous league matches.

In fact, Floriana were the better of two disjointed sides and carved the better chances in the first half. It was only down to keeper Mario Muscat, with the sort of saves that breed defensive confidence, that the game was still goalless at halftime.

Considering the circumstances and the quality of the opposition, this was hardly the right fixture for Floriana to make up for their dismal performance against Birkirkara in midweek.

Floriana, already without a coach after Michael Woods and his coaching staff’s resignation in the aftermath, were a depleted side without the suspended trio of Manolito Micallef, Ivan Woods and Eric Akoto.

That created problems in their defence, as Pablo Doffo had to retreat as centre back alongside Owen Bugeja. Matters were further complicated when Bugeja was forced to be substituted with muscle problems past the quarter hour and Malcolm Licari was drafted in as right back, Duncan Pisani moved to the left and Thomas Paris moved in the centre.

Andre Grabowski, who gave a generous performance despite ending on the losing side, was preferred to Alandson, who only went in as a substitute. Floriana also gave a rare start to Ryan Darmanin in attack.

After a barren half hour, during which both goalkeepers needed not be in attendance, Floriana carved three goal scoring opportunities within as many minutes.

Doffo’s free kick on 32 minutes was repelled by keeper Muscat and Caruana skied the rebound.

Following a Mintoff corner from the right, Darmanin’s goal bound header was tipped over the bar by Muscat and the Hibernian’s custodian was again called to block Grabowski’s effort, as he controlled a deep Clyde Borg cross inside the Paolites’ area.

Hibernians, who did not manage a decent shot on target for the first 45 minutes, showed up three minutes after the restart when Dias advanced inside the Floriana area from the left but keeper Jansen blocked the ball into a corner.

On the other end, Joseph Borg should have done better on a Mintoff’s cross, but lofted the ball from a very promising position.

But Hibernians were more determined in the second half. On 56 minutes Dias’ cross shot clipped the bar but Edison could not deflect the ball in when challenged by Paris.

Hibernians broke the deadlock three minutes later after awarded a free kick for Paris’ foul on edge of area on the right. Failla surprisingly played the ball low towards the middle for Jackson Lima to unleash an unstoppable shot at the top right hand corner.

Floriana tried to counter. Keeper Muscat saved in two attempts a Grabowski effort, when put clear by Caruana. And then Muscat stretched himself to hold out a Doffo free kick.

But misery was compounded for the Greens on 66 minutes. Their defender Duncan Pisani was sent off after a retaliation on the grounded Edison after a challenge for the ball.

Hibernians took quite some time to exploit their numerical superiority and it was only in the last seven minutes that they scored their second, again from a dead ball situation.

Failla’s corner from the right was cleared short in the path of Jackson Lima who hit past keeper Hansen with a left foot shot from the edge of the area.

That proved enough for Hibernians to maintain their title charge.