SAN ĠILJAN TUM INVEST…9
SIRENS ASC……………………7
(2-2), (3-1), (2-1), (2-3)
League leaders San Ġiljan Tum Invest had to fight hard to finish the game as winners, defeating a resilient Sirens side 9-7. Coach Marko Orlovic can be satisfied with the win, but will go to the drawing board thinking where his team could be better as players like Ben Plumpton and Dino Zammit had a frustrating evening.
Kudos goes to Sirens who fought bravely and despite finishing on the losers’ side, coach Sergio Afric is surely proud of his team’s efforts. They were in the game from start to finish, and they put the leaders under pressure for most of the game, and if it wasn’t for the goals of Matthew Zammit, the game could have had a different ending.
The start of the game already gave an indication of what it was going to be like, as San Ġiljan had to rely on Aleksandar Ivovic to recover an early disadvantage after Presciutti and Brownrigg scored for Sirens. San Ġiljan started the second session better and went in front for the first time after a goal by Cousin. But Sirens equalised from Christian Presciutti after a quick man-up. Things were started to be complicated for San Ġiljan, but Matthew Zammit had other plans as he scored twice in the last part of the session to put his team 5-3 in the lead.
After the restart, Paul Fava responded immediately to the goal of Clint Mercieca to keep San Giljan’s two-goal advantage, and after both teams failed to capitalise on two man-up occasions each, Matthew Zammit was at the right place as the right time to make the score 7-4 with less than a minute and a half to spare in the third session.
Jacob Sciberras scored early in the last session to keep his team with a chance. But after two minutes, Matthew Zammit regained the three-goal cushion. Presciutti kept his team’s chances alive with a goal with a bit more than two minutes left, but after they missed a great chance, Cousin sealed the game with a goal in the last seconds.
San Ġiljan: J. Tanti, P. Borg, A. Galea, B. Grech, J. Galea, M. Zammit (4), B. Plumpton, D. Zammit, A. Ivovic (2), A. Cousin (2), P. Fava (1), D. Zammit, T. Micallef
Sirens: N. Grixti, J. Zerafa Gregory, C. Presciutti (3), J. Sciberras (1), M. Grech, I. Riolo, J. Ciantar, D. Cutajar, J. Napier, J. Brownrigg (1), L. Caruana, O. Gauci, C. Mercieca (2)
Referees: Mario Dalli, Tommaso Boccia
Link – Malta Independent
