Young Stars and Sliema in play-off

The battle for second place in the National League remained undecided even after the last matches of the competition and will now have to be resolved by a play-off on Sunday morning.

In last Sunday's first game Sliema beat Poiatti Qormi 2-0.

After a bright start by Qormi, it was the Hotsticks who almost drew first blood when, following a fast break, Pace was upended by the Qormi goalkeeper. From the resultant penalty stroke Shawn Mifsud saw his flick saved by the alert Chircop.

Qormi responded with three consecutive short corners the last of which saw Sliema goalkeeper saving well off Frank Bugeja.

In the final minutes of the half both goalkeepers were called into action with Qormi's Chircop saving off Mifsud and Sliema's Mallia denying Magri.

The second half saw Sliema applying good pressure which however failed to produce a goal.

Midway through the half it was Poiatti's turn to push forward aided by the fact that Sliema were down to nine men following the temporary suspension of veterans Bezzina and Cachia.

The reshuffled Sliema team held out with Mallia producing an excellent save from Magri, and when the teams were restored to parity Sliema tipped the game in their favour.

Ten minutes from time Michael Caruana Smith, following a run from midfield, picked up Baldacchino in the dee and his well-placed shot beat Chircop.

Five minutes later the same Baldacchino produced a good run down the wing and his cross found an unmarked Mifsud who had no difficult in flicking past Chircop.

With Sliema having won their game, Hunters' Tower YS were faced with the task of having to become the first team to beat Rabat Depiro for the first time in order to retain any hope of taking the runners-up spot.

Their determination to do so was evident from early on and after six minutes they took the led. Ivan Magri produced a top-class run down the wing that left the Rabat defence all over the place and his cross picked out Ryan Gatt who finished neatly past Azzopardi.

After this early flurry the game balanced out as Rabat started to produce a reaction. Their effort was finally rewarded when they equalised after 23 minutes through Josef Antonelli following a good cross from Jeffrey Aquilina.

The second half again saw Young Stars come out strongly. After three minutes they almost produced a replica of their goal but this time Gatt hit wide. On 12 minutes Charles Micallef hit wide but a minute later Young Stars were awarded a stroke following a foul on their best player, Ivan Magro. Up stepped Micallef and his flick gave Azzopardi no chance.

Young Stars remained the better side with Magro and Evans both going close but five minutes from time their efforts seemed destined to failure when following a short corner move Rabat were awarded a penalty stroke. James Azzopardi stepped up but Waylin Abdilla, standing in for regular goalkeeper Mizzi, saved his flick and gave his team a chance to play off for the second spot in the league.

The defeat certainly did not dampen Rabat's post match celebrations after they were awarded the championship trophy by HAM president Chris Busutill Leaver.

Start of KO competition

Besides the play-off for second place, Sunday will also see the start of the KO competition with Rabat Depiro facing Britannia Tours White Hart.