Champions 2X Sirens could take a decisive step to retaining the title they won for the sixth time in 2005 if they beat Neptunes Vodafone in today's crunch match at Tal-Qroqq.

At present, Sirens and Neptunes are leading the standings with 14 points, two ahead of Sliema Burger King. The latter will be hoping for a drawn result in the match involving their two main rivals to get back into contention but only if they beat revelation side San Giljan Zara tomorrow.

Sirens are coming from a hard-fought victory over Sliema as the Division One championship got off to an excellent start last week, also thanks to the sound showing of the Maltese referees who are clearly equal to their peers from Italy.

The Preliminary Round match between Sliema and Sirens went the latter's way 11-8. However, last week John Farrugia's men had to dig deep into their energy reserves to beat Sliema 10-9 after withstanding the Blues' strong rally in the end.

All credit to Sirens for their victory though as they had to play the crucial stages of the match without the experienced Jonathan Valletta and Hungarian Tamas Marcz, both fouled out.

Neptunes' bid to end a long wait for the national league is still on track but the Reds will have to up their game by a few notches if they are to claim the championship for the first time since 1993.

In their last match against neighbours San Giljan, Neptunes struggled to impose their play against gritty opponents who look strong enough to steal away a point from the 'top three' in Division One.

Neptunes hold an edge over Sirens this summer after winning the President's Cup and handing the team from St Paul's Bay their only defeat so far.

Victory for the Reds today will surely spur them on ahead of the big derby against Sliema on August 5.

Sliema, meanwhile, will be looking to avoid any upsets against San Giljan who seem to be yearning for more even though their pre-season target of top-flight waterpolo has already been reached.

Indeed, this year's championship is proving to be one of the tightest for years with the Saints contributing strongly towards that aspect.

Today - 6 p.m. Marsascala vs Ta' Xbiex; 7.15 p.m. Neptunes vs Sirens.

Tomorrow - 6 p.m. Marsaxlokk vs Otters; 7.15 p.m. Sliema vs San Giljan.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.