Premier League

 

Sirens Ritter Sport           11    

Exiles Ferretti                    15

(3-3, 2-5, 3-3, 3-4)

 

Exiles left it late, but they finally managed to obtain a victory, in their last match of the season. They also avenged their two defeats by Sirens, earlier on in the season. Sirens had Csaba Kiss missing, with Serbian, Alex Njegovan taking his place. Also absent were Marc Grech and Matthew Caruana, with Georg Debono back in the squad, and Isiah Riolo for the first time in the team. There were a lot ofexpulsions, with both sides losing two players on fouls, and Alex Radovic was also sent off, for Exiles, after the break.

Sirens grabbed a double lead, by Alex Attard and Arpad Babay, with Peter Borg getting Exiles started. Babay’ penalty hit the crossbar, but he netted from the rebound, for another better advantage for Sirens, but till the end of the period, Exiles were on level terms, with goals from Radovic and Vojoslav Cupic. Radovic took Exiles in front for the first time, but David Cutajar had both teams level again, for Sirens. Simon Vassallo pushed Exiles once more in the lead, but Njegovan scored his first goal for Sirens. Until the interval Exiles then swept in front, and scored three times in succession, from a Cupic brace, and Radovic, for an 8-5 halftime advantage.

Julian Rizzo Naudi extended Exiles’ lead after the break, but Babay netted twice for Sirens, the second one from another penalty, with Radovic being sent off for Exiles. James Spiteri Staines was the next exiles scorer, with a couple of goals, but in between Njegovan alos scored for Sirens, as Exiles went into the last session on an 11-8 lead. Cupic took exiles further in front, but Zak Mizzi scored at the other end.  It was Cupic again for Exiles, but Sirens’ reply were two goals, by Cutajar and Mizzi, as they crept nearer. Exiles then made the issue safe, with the game’s last two strikes, both by Borg, as they ended their league tally on three points.

Exiles, who scored six times from a total of thirteen man ups, had Cupic with a nap hand of goals, and radovic and Borg on hat tricks. Sirens managed five goals from nine favourable expulsions, and Babay scored a poker of goals.

 

Sirens: A. Grech, Z. Mizzi 2, I. Riolo, J. Napier , A. Babay 4, A. Njegovan 2,J.Borg , D. Cutajar 2, A. Zarb Cousin, A. Attard 1, S. Micallef ,G. Debono , J. Cremona     

Exiles: I. Bugeja, J. Rizzo Naudi 1, S. Vassallo 1, D. Pace Lupi , N. Portelli, A. Radovic 3, J. Spiteri Staines 2, V. Cupic 5, L. Borg , P. Borg 3,S. Galea Pace , D. Borg , K. Lanzon

Referees:  P. Balzan, M. Di Chiara

 

 

 

Presentation night for Valletta

 

 

Ta Xbiex Amigos               13    

Valletta United                 22

(0-6, 5-5, 5-3, 3-8)

 

It was presentation night for Valletta, in their last league encounter, as they disposed of Ta Xbiex, and ended their league commitments, well above the other teams in the standings. It was a very open match, with Valletta running away from their opponents in the opening session, but Ta Xbiex provided better opposition in the other periods of play, as the score was hiked up at either end.

Valletta had Clint Debono just a spectator, with Jean Carl Farrugia taking his place, and also converting a penalty throw, as in another match that he played in. Ta Xbiex were without Yuri Szeles once more, and Seb Cini and Philip Paris were also missing. Curtis Pace was included again in the side, and put his name on the goalscorers list.

Valletta ended with a good four goals in their five man-ups, and Djorde Filipovic scored five times, Charles Zammit netted four goals and Milos Korolija had a hat trick. Ta Xbiex were seven times with an extra player in the water, scoring in four of them. They had Otis Zammit with a total of six goals, and Peter Markoch netted three times.

After the match the Citizens made merry, as they were presented with the league trophy of their divisiom, by the BOV Chief Officer, Peter Perotti, to the Valletta captain, Simon Cachia. Valletta thus made a clean sweep of the honours, along with the K.O. and the Sport Journalists Cup, earlier on in the season.

 

Ta Xbiex: L. Borg, L. Pace , A. Galea 1, T. Galea 1, M. Axiaq 1, K. Galea, M. Paris , P. Markoch 3, R. Attard , O. Zammit 6, C. Pace 1

Valletta: R. Sciortino, S. Meli 2,  R. Calleja 2, M. Korolija 3, N. Bonello Ghio, S. Cachia 1, M. Cordina 1, C. Zammit 4, JC Farrugia 1, R. Scerri 2, A. Arrigo 1, D. Filipovic 5, Z. Sciberras

Referees: R. Spiteri, P. Giordano