Premier League

Neptunes Emirates    17    

Exiles Ferretti     8

(4-1, 2-2, 9-2, 2-3)  

Neptunes did not break sweat to go into sole top spot in the standings. Two sessions were enough for them to break away from their adversaries, with Exiles offering better resistance in the second and last sessions of play. Neptunes are cruising in this league campaign, and when they trod hard on the accelerator goals are nor so hard to come by for them.

Exiles managed to keep in touch till the interval, after falling behind, but after the break Neptunes really let loose, driving in nine goals to sweep away any lingering doubts. Exiles had a change in one of their foreigners, with Frenchman, Romain Blary, leaving the island, and Aleksander Radovic taking his place, with the Serbian obtaining a poker of goals, but he was eclipsed by a seven goal blast from Neptunes’ Tamas Molnar.

Steve Camilleri also struck in four goals for the champions, keeping his place on the top of the scorers’ standings. Neptunes raced into a 3-0 lead, with two from Molnar and another by Niki Lanzon. Vojoslav Cupic opened Exiles’ account, with Molnar obtaining an early hat trick. In the second period Exiles shared four goals with their opponents. Radovic and Peter Borg were their scorers, but in between Molnar and Michele Stellini continued upping the champions’ score, for a 6-3 advantage at the interval. After the break Radovic scored again for exiles, but then came Nep- tunes’ goal rush, as Steve Camilleri put in three, with two from Molnar and Clint Mercieca, and others by Lanzon and Stellini.

Kurt Grixti found the back of the net for a fifth exiles goal, as Neptunes went away to a 15-5 score. In the last quarter an Exiles’ spurt had them scoring twice, from Julian Rizzo Naudi and Radovic, with Mol- nar netting his seventh for the champions. Radovic hit another for exiles, with Steve Camilleri closing down the score for Neptunes. The champions scored in their first two man ups, but failed in the next two, with exiles faring slightly better, with two strikes out of three man ups.

Neptunes: A. Borg Cole, N. Lanzon 2, A. Sammut, M. Stellini 2, T. Agius, A. Ciric, S. Camilleri 4, J. Camilleri, G. Pace, S. Gravina, B. Lanzon, T. Mol- nar 7, C. Mercieca 2 Exiles: I. Bugeja, J. Rizzo Naudi 1, S. Vassallo, D. Zammit Lupi , N. Portelli, A. Radovic 4, J. Spiteri Staines, V. Cupic 1, K. Grixti 1, P. Borg 1, M. Magri, D. Borg , K. Lanzon Referees: M. Dalli, G. Centineo.

First Division

Otters Nivea     13    

Ta Xbiex Amigos      12            

(2-3, 3-2, 7-4, 1-3)

Otters were ousted of the K.O. by the same Ta Xbiex a couple of days ago, but had their revenge in the league, beating their opponents by the odd goal, in which an expulsion had a large say in the Gozi- tans’ victory. Actually Otters had a clearer win than the final score suggests, and it was only a Ta Xbiex recovery in the last stages of the match which took them close, but time ran out on them, and Ot- ters are now alongside Ta Xbiex in the standings.

Rheinhard Attard returned for Ta Xbiex, after his injury.

It was a close encounter till the third session, when Seb Cini was sent off, without substitution, and ta Xbiex had to battle on with a man less for four minutes. By that time the Gozitans put in five goals, to edge away, and a further strike in the last period had them sitting pretty, until a late thrust had Ta Xbiex gaining ground, with three goals, but the game had dwindled down to the last few seconds, and Otters played out the rest of the match. Ivan Vuksanovic hit in five goals for Otters, with Ta Xbiex replies coming from hat tricks by Peter Markoch and Andreas Galea.

Otters: N. Grixti, G. Attard 1, G. Zammit 1, A. Borg, J. Young, A. Cachia,  K. Scicluna 1, D. Schembri 1, A. Edward 2, S. Dimech, C. Mar- tin 1, I. Vuksanovic 5, K. Grima Scott 1 Ta Xbiex: L. Borg, J. Navarro, A. Galea 3, T. Galea 2, S. Cini, M. As- ciak, K. Galea 1, M. Paris 1, P. Paris, P. Markoch 3, R. Attard, O. Zammit 1, Y. Szeles 1 Referees: P. Balzan, S. Licari