Division Three - Three teams sharing top spot after Sirens draw

Sta Venera Lightnings 4
Kirkop United 1

Sta Venera Lightnings joined Sirens and Siggiewi at the top of the Division Three standings after beating Kirkop United on Monday. For the Lightnings this was their third victory from four matches while Kirkop suffered their second successive defeat.

Sta Venera made all the early running but it was Kirkop who drew first blood in the eighth minute, Mark Farrugia ably controlled a Chris Farrugia pass before slotting the ball home.

The Lightnings came back strongly and Mark Grech put them level on 18 minutes. They kept pressing forward with Grech and Ian Falzon again threatening the Kirkop defence.

Eight minutes from the break, Falzon scored an opportunistic goal to put Sta Venera in front for the first time in the match.

Kirkop enjoyed the better exchanges at the start of the second half but gradually Sta Venera regained the initiative. The Lightnings scored their third goal on 71 minutes, again from Grech.

Andrew Hili sealed the points for Sta Venera with a fourth goal ten minutes from time.

Referee: Sammy Attard.

Zurrieq 1
Sirens 1

Sirens dropped their first points of the season when they were held to a one-all draw by a young Zurrieq side who played their best match of the season.

Sirens dictated the run of play throughout the first half and early on were twice close through a Richard Buhagiar free-kick, which scraped the crossbar, and a Neil Zarb Cousin shot which was deflected to a corner.

Sirens managed to take the lead on the half hour. They were awarded a penalty for a handling infringement by Zurrieq defender Jeffrey Camilleri in the area and Etienne Bonnici made no mistake from the spot.

Zurrieq took just six minutes to redress the imbalance when Matthew Genuis and Daniel Zammit combined well to set up Robert Bajada for the equaliser.

Sirens held the upperhand after the break, going close through Charlò Debattista and Patrick Barbara.

But it was Zurrieq who had the best goal scoring opportunities.

In the 69th minute a strong volley by Dino Bonnici was saved by Schembri and five minutes later Bajada was unlucky to see his effort hit the upright.

Late on, Sirens' substitute Maurice Busuttil hit just wide from a well taken free-kick.

Referee: Darren Calleja.

Played Yesterday

Luqa St Andrews 1
Kalkara United 3

Zejtun Corinthians 0
Fgura united 1