Brave Blues bounce back into contention

Sliema 18
(5-1, 4-3, 4-7, 5-5)
Sirens 16

Sliema Burger King at last beat the 2X Sirens jinx to bounce back into title contention after their brave victory yesterday which had the trademark of Edward Aquilina, scorer of a record 10 goals.

Although playing with their inexperienced goalkeeper Ryan Coleiro in lieu of Josie Cachia and also missing Mark Meli, the Blues took their opponents by storm to maintain a five- or six-goal gap well into the third session.

Their scoring kingpin was Aquilina, a lad who has an uncanny eye for goal, and at the back, none played better than goalkeeper Coleiro. This time it did not matter that Tibor Benedek only netted once as the Blues showed for once that their collective quality was not to be dismissed.

This was mostly evident in the last session as they battled on, bruised and battered, and with a man less (for brutality) for four minutes. Their fighting spirit was indeed laudable and their success was thoroughly deserved.

They went three goals ahead early in the first session through Aquilina twice and John Soler before Karl Montfort scored for Sirens.

That momentum was kept up as Benedek and Daniel Paolella gave them a 5-1 first session lead.

Their press was very effective with Sirens being unable to have a sniff of goal.

Aquilina made it 6-1 with Paul Privitera reducing the gap before Soler and again Aquilina made it 8-2.

Clint Mercieca and Jonathan Valletta pulled back two goals but Soler flicked in off an accurate 25-metre pass just before the end of the second session (9-4). The same player opened a six-goal gap after the second restart while Mercieca and Juergen Borg scored in succession for a 10-6 scoreline.

Aquilina and Valletta alternated two goals apiece before the former again netted to extend Sliema's lead to 13-8 towards the end of the third session.

By this time, Sliema had a number of players hanging on two personal faults. Privitera, twice, and Valletta closed the gap on 13-11 before the last session started.

In the meantime, Sliema's forces had been reduced to tatters as Clint Debono was out on his third personal fault with Francesco Cutajar being dismissed for brutality and leaving his team to battle on for four minutes with a man less. Sirens gave the impression that they could profit from this advantage but they only flattered to deceive after Valletta had made it 13-12 early in the last session. But, the irrepressible Aquilina scored a further three goals with Michael Rizzo adding a brace to leave Sirens at an arm's length.

Three goals from Montfort and one from Mercieca were only of statistical importance.

The Blues had beaten the odds which had looked in favour of Sirens in the last session and victory could not have been more deserved, even taking into consideration their high rate of scoring on man-up sets.

Sliema: R. Coleiro, C. Gialanze, E. Aquilina 10, M. Rizzo 2, J. Gabaretta, J. Soler 4, D. Paolella 1, T. Benedek 1. C. Debono, F. Cutajar, N. Lubrano, A. Bianchi, J. Cachia.

Sirens: J. Caruana Dingli, T. Debono, N. Cassar, P. Privitera 3, C. Zammit, J. Valletta 5, J. Borg 1, D. Cutajar, K. Montfort 4, T. Marcz, C. Mercieca 3, R. Attard, A. Grech.

Refs: M. Dalli, F. Brasiliano.