Valletta                  1
St Andrew's           0

Valletta: H. Bonello, S. Borg, R. Camilleri, S. Malano (I. Saleh 73'), K. Nwoko. J. Borg, E. Pene Beltre, R. Muscat, M. Alba, B. Gavrila ( M.Piciollo 54'), M. Fontanella ( N.Pulis 86')

St. Andrew's: M. Calleja Cremona, A. Satariano, K. McFarlane (K.Magro 80'), R. Martin (J.Farrugia 82'), T. Blagrove, K. Atkinson, K.Reid, A. Borg, M. Davis, D. Debono, M.Woo Ling (M.Grima 75')  

Referee: Mario Apap

Asst refs: Alan Camilleri, Chris Francalanza

4th official: Trustin Farrugia Cann

Scorers: Enmy Pene Beltre 75'      

Yellow cards: S.Borg, K.Reid, K.Magro  

Player of the match:  Enmy Pena Beltre (Valletta)

TMI Top 3:  1.  M. Davis   2.  E. Pena Beltre    3.   K. Atkinson

Attendance: 616

Valletta registered another important win though this wasn't a walk in the park winning by a solitary goal scored late in the game. The Lillywhites were not at their best this could be due to their numerous players who were on duty with the national team and thus having not much time to recover from the double header against Kosovo and Faroe Islands.

This was a tight match with Valletta holding the edge over their opponents. St. Andrew's had their good moments also but they couldn't afford to miss the few chances that came their way. In the end it was ex-Pene Beltre who scored the all important goal giving Valletta another three valuable points.

Valletta thus extended their positive run to nine matches after their draw in the top of the table clash against Gzira in their last match before the international break. On the other hand St. Andrew's are proving to be a difficult preposition and this was also proved in this match.

Valletta had to do without the suspended Joseph Zerafa for this important match. They missed once again Bojan Kaljevic with Gavrila given a starting berth. It was also good to see once again Jean Borg starting the match and Pulis brought on late in the game.

After six minutes Malano found Fontanella but the latters diagonal shot missed the target.  On 10 minutes the Saints reacted when Martin Davis made the best out of a defensive blunder passing towards Atkinson and after making his way throught the opposing area shot wide.

In the 21st minute Valletta went near when Pena Beltre passed towards Nwoko but the Valletta striker shot wide with the goal at his mercy. Eleven minutes from the end of the half Gavrila tested Calleja Cremona following a scramble in the Saints defence. And on 38 minutes it was the Saints who ended the half on a high when Davis found Atkinson with Bonello saving the latters shot.

The second half failed to produce with St. Andrew's going near to breaking the deadlock just past the hour when Atkinson blasted over the bar after being set by Davis.  But it was the Citizens who scored what proved to be the winner when in the 75th minute Saleh passed towards Pena Beltre who from an acute angle fired home.

St. Andrew's failed to mount a reaction with Valletta controlling till the end and grabbing another good though hard fought win.

This win enabled Valletta to keep up the pressure on Gzira and Hibernians when with only two matches to go for the end of the first round the tussle at the summit seems to be very tight. It all looks that the decision making will go down to the wire.