Tarxien R-Sirens 0-3
Tarxien: R. Briffa, M. Botta, T. Veronese, D. Mambouana (N. Portelli 66'), G. Camilleri, A. Azzopardi, A. Andrejic, B. Muscat, M. Stanojevic, M. Ciantar, P. Kanzurov (A. Tenorio 53')
Sirens: D. Cassar, D. Sant, R. Grech, W. De Oliveira (R. Fenech 85'), E. Okoye, A. Borg, I. Abdullahi Adeshina (L. Sciberras 90'), Y. Yao Tagro (S. Arab 82'), R. Romau, R. Memezes, T. Espindola
Referee: Slobodan Petrovic
Ass. Referees: Edward Spiteri, Christopher Francalanza
Fourth Official: Darryl Agius
Scorers: R. Menezes 14', 59' pen, E. Okoye 62'
Yellow cards: R. Grech 27', M. Ciantar 49', A. Andrejic 52',
Player of the match: R. Memezes (Sirens)
TMI Best Three: 1. R. Memezes 2. R. Romao 3. A. Andrejic
Sirens continued with their impressive run and challenge in the top quarters of the table, beating bottom of the table side Tarxien in a scrappy match. The result leaves the Rainbows firmly at the bottom of the table and still in search of their first point of the season.
Sirens were surely the better team and fully deserved their victory even though Tarxien were surely not lucky in some decisions taken by the officials, especially in the first two goals scored by Menezes, both coming from highly dubious actions. But the game in general never really came to life and was boring at times.
The match had a very timid start with only one attempt at goal in the opening twelve minutes with a Miguel Ciantar freekick going wide. On 14 minutes the deadlock was broken when Romeo Romao crossed the ball from the goal line, and most probably from beyond, and Menezes had little difficulty in tapping the ball home from close range. The Tarxien players protested hotly especially with assistent referee Spiteri, claiming that the ball was out when Romao crossed for Menezes.
On twenty minutes Andrejic tested Cassar with a shot on the turn, but then we had to wait till the 35th minute to have another attempt, this time through Espindola, whose cross-shot travelled to the face of goal but there was no one to finish in goal.
The second half started with Sirens pushing for a second goal but at the other end on 54 minutes an Andrejic header forced Cassar to save. On 58 minutes Sirens were awarded a penalty when Brandon Grech held Wellington inside the area, with the referee awarding the penalty, for a rather harsh decision.
From the penalty spot Menezes made no mistake to give Sirens a two-goal cushion. Three minutes later Sirens sealed the issue with a third goal when Wellington passed towards the unmarked Okoye who drilled the ball home from close range.
Sirens dominated the remaining minutes and could have even obtained a larger victory had it not been for Tarxien goalkeeper Briffa who made two outstanding saves around the 80th minute first on a Romao scorcher and from the rebound he managed to save Adeshina's point blank shot.