Champions Hibernians contin‐ ued with their recovery as they beat newly promoted Zebbug Rangers by a solitary goal scored by international defender Ferdinando Apap early in the second half.

After a rather dismal start to the season the champions are slowly but surely recovering even though their gap form league leaders Hamrun Spartans and Birkirakar remains a massive one.

For Hibernians this was the second successive victory after their good win against the solid Balzan side.

Although the result and the overall performance can be considered as a positive one for Hibernians, however it must be said that the Paolites are still far away from their best form, the form that gave them a deserved title last season.

Before the match Hibernians team manager Jesmond Abela presented striker Jurgen De‐ gabriele with a commemorative jersey to mark his 200 apear‐ ances with the champions.

Degabriela was the side’s top scorer last season, abd is also their best scorer so far this sea‐ son, and last season he crowned a great one by winning the MFA best player of the year award.

Yesterday Degabriele was not on the mark but was arguably the best player on the field of play and was voted as the best player of the match.

The match had a slow start but Zeggug Rangers almost took the lead on seven minutes when the Hibernians defence gave away the ball and Lokoli tried to take advantage and managed a shot at goal from a rather acute angle, but veteran Justin Haber was on the alert to block his effort.

Four minutes later Ferdinando Apap made his intentions clear in attack when he dashed forward and met a Muritala perfect cross from the righty, but Apap’s effort went well over the bar.

Without setting any houses on fire Hibernians continued to dictate matters even though Zebbug well organised in midfield and in defence and Hibernians were not that dangerous in attack.

On the half hour Jake Grech tried to solve matters for the champions with a fine solo run that was finished off with a fierce drive that Chetcuti only partially saved, but noNe of the Hibs at‐ tackers managed to take advan‐ tage and the Zebbug defence managed to clear the danger.

Three minutes form the break Zebbug almost forged ahead when Justin Haber managed to block a Miloskovic shot and from the rebound Lokoli’s effort was blocked by the Hibernians de‐ fenders.

On the other end Jurgen Degabriele rounded a defender but his effort was brilliantly saved by Chetcuti.

The second half was on the same pattern with Hibernians again in control of the game and with Zebbug holding its ground.

Then on 57 minutes Hibernians managed to take the lead in what proved to be the winning goal.

Jurgen Degabriele started the move passing the ball towards Jake Grech who beat a Zebbug defender on the run and crossed towards Ferdinando Apap, who this timemade no mistake and fired the ball home.

Zebbug’s reaction was not im‐ pressive and Hibernians almost sealed the issue on 75 minutes when Jurgen Degabriele crossed towards Dunstan Vella whose header just missed the upright by a whisker.

On 80 minutes Zebbug created a melee in front of Haber but the ball just could not go in.

In a fast break Hibernians again almost doubled the score when Mensah, well served by Dunstan Vella was denied by Chetcuti.

In the last desperate seconds of the match Zebbug almost drew level but Haber denied Almeida’s final effort.