A goal by Romanian striker Andrei Ciolacu gave a much needed victory and three points to Birkirkara from their direct encounter against Hibernians.

Ciolacu had only been on the pitch for ten minutes, coming on instead of , when his volley found the net to the delight of the Stripes supporters.

Birkirkara thus returned to winning ways after drawing their last match against Valletta. As for Hibernians this was their second consecutive defeat since in their midweek match they lost against Floriana.

After ten minutes Zapytowski was called into action saving a long range shot by Bjorn Kristensen. Nine minutes later Hibernians threatened once again when Bastianos found Jurgen Degabriele and the latters shot on the turn was saved by the Stripes goalkeeper.

On 27 minutes Birkirkara went near for the first time with Satariano supplying a perfect pass towards Mbong who after making his way forward and with only Kone to beat saw the Hibernians goalkeeper save his effort.

Two minutes later the Stripes once again on the offensive this time Satariano shooting diagonally only to just miss the target. And on 41 minutes Mbong passed the ball towards Yankam who found Satariano but the Birkirkara striker concluded well off the mark.

On the stroke of half time Satariano once again missed an easy chance when he sent the ball wide after being set by Mbong.

After the break Antwi squared the ball towards Bastianos but his volley sailed over the bar. And just past the hour Hibernians were rather lucky when Ferdinando Apap got away with just a booking when he brought down Satariano.

Birkirkara looked always the most dangerous and in fact they scored what proved to be the winner ten minutes from the end. Yankam supplied a perfect pass towards Ciolacu and his volley beat Kone all ends up.

It was the goal that sealed the issue with Birkirkara holding firm till the final whistle.

Photo: Domenic Aquilina