Easy wins for Young Stars, Rabat

The National League continued on Sunday with two matches that saw The Hunter's Tower Restaurant and Punch & Judy Rabat register easy victories over Pasta Poiatti Qormi and The George Pub respectively.

Pasta Poiatti Qormi 0
The Hunter's Tower Rest. 3

In the first game of the day, leaders The Hunter's Tower Rest. kept marching on with a clear 3-0 victory over Pasta Poiatti Qormi.

After their first success against The George Pub, Pasta Poiatti went into this game without the pressure of still having to obtain their first victory or score their first goal.

However, The Hunter's Tower were superior in every department and the final 3-0 scoreline might have been greater.

Pasta Poiatti started the game brightly and managed to keep their opponents at bay. There were very few chances for both teams although the leaders had more possession.

In keeping with their scoring trend this season, Young Stars' first goal arrived after a short corner move.

The first hit at goal was parried by goalkeeper Chircop and so was the subsequent rebound but could do nothing to stop the shot by Nicky Agius Darmanin from going in.

In spite of this, Pasta Poiatti kept battling and gave a good account of themselves throughout the first half. The second half was a different matter altogether. Young Stars doubled their lead from another short corner move through Christian Fenech and then the temporary sending-off of Philip Magri shattered any hopes Pasta Poiatti might have had of salvaging anything from the game.

Young Stars mounted attack after attack, each time stretching the Qormi defence. Despite some resilient defending by Meli, Micallef and goalkeeper Chircop, the Pasta Poiatti goal was breached for the third time by Jonathan Ellul following a good move from the Floriana team.

Punch & Judy Rabat 7
The George Pub 1

Punch & Judy Rabat softened the pain caused by their recent setbacks with a 7-1 drubbing of The George Pub. Without the suspended Josef Antonelli, Rabat were still streets ahead of their opponents as they raced into a five-goal lead by the 20th minute.

With their list of long-term absentees not getting shorter (Ray Bezzina is the latest addition), The George Pub were swamped by their opponents who were coming from two consecutive defeats and took out their frustration on their inexperienced opponents.

After barely one minute, Chris Bugeja set the ball rolling when he converted a penalty stroke given for an infringement by Mario Falzon.

Five minutes later it was Jason Vella who doubled with a spectacular first-time lob and Renè Antonelli made it three in the ninth minute.

The George Pub were nowhere in the game as Seychell got on the score sheet on 14 minutes. Two minutes later, it was Antonelli who got his second to make the score 5-0.

This goal was symbolic of the game as Rabat played the ball around their opponent's dee with impunity until they found the unmarked Antonelli who deflected past Galea.

After this whirlwind start, Punch & Judy pulled in the reigns and opted to control the game. The George Pub pulled a goal back at the start of the second when from a well-worked short corner, Luke Borg Costanzi got his first senior goal.

Rabat restored their five-goal lead on 15 minutes as Seychell got his second after he was set up by Vella. The George Pub goalkeeper, Galea, kept the score 'relatively' low with a number of good saves but Seychell rounded off his hat-trick in the final minute to close the score at 7-1.

Next fixtures: Tomorrow - 5 p.m. The George Pub vs Celtics YS. Sunday - 9 a.m. The Hunter's Tower vs Sliema Hotsticks; 11 a.m. Punch & Judy Rabat vs Pasta Poiatti Qormi.