Santa Lucia registered an important win when in a direct clash against relegation they beat basement side Pieta Hotspurs by the odd goalhenii in three.

It was a deserved win for the Saints who were the best team on the day though they played with ten-man for much of the second period.

For Pieta this defeat practically doomed them to the Challenge League since they remain anchored at the bottom of the table.

On 17 minutes Santa Lucia were the first to go near when Francisco Rodrigues found Yevhenii Terzi but the latter missed a sitter sending the ball over the bar. Seven minutes later Jake Ghio made the best out of a mistake in the opponents rearguard passing towards Hovhannisyan only for his shot to be deflected onto a corner. Just past the half hour Santa Lucia could have forged ahead but Nwoko’s shot just missed out. The Saints kept pressing forward and on 37 minutes a headed effort by Francisco Rodrigues off a Terzi cross ended wide off the mark. Six minutes from the end of the first half Santa Lucia took the lead. Lorenzo Soares Fonseca supplied the assist towards Kyrian Nwoko and the latters low shot beat Simone Moschin.

On 63 minutes Pieta drew level.  Rodolfo Soares brought down Takuma Yamaguchi in the area and the referee pointed to the spot with Soares being shown his second yellow card and thus had to leave the field.  The same Yamaguchi converted to put Pieta back into the game.

But it was Santa Lucia who had the last laugh when fourteen minutes from time Kyrian Nwoko lobbed the ball over Simone Moschin for what proved to be the winner for Santa Lucia who with these three points move closing to Zebbug Rangers.

Photo: Domenic Aquilina