The 2006/07 women's league kicked off this week at the Luxol Ground. This season, matches are being played on Tuesday and Wednesday with kick-off time set for 8.15 p.m.
On Tuesday, Sta Venera opened their league commitments with an emphatic 6-2 win over debutants Mgarr United who missed two penalties. The Saints took control of the match from early on but it was Mgarr who should have broken the stalemate on 10 minutes.
In a swift break, Antoinette Sammut was floored inside the area by goalkeeper Debbie Meilaq and a penalty was awarded to Mgarr. Odrianne Chetcuti stepped up for the kick but her central shot was blocked by Meilaq.
Mgarr paid dearly for this miss as in the 20th minute, Christine Dalli put Sta Venera ahead. However, the Saints' joy was shortlived as five minutes later Ebygale Camilleri profited from an error by Meilaq to net the equaliser.
Sta Venera regained the lead on 33 minutes thanks to another Dalli goal. But it was all square again on the stroke of half-time when Mgarr were awarded a free-kick and Chetcuti fired the ball home.
The goals kept flowing and ten minutes into the second half Maryrose Cardona put Sta Venera 3-2 ahead. A minute later, Mgarr were awarded a second penalty when Meilaq fouled Daniela Ebejer in the box. The Sta Venera goalkeeper suffered an injury in the penalty incident and was replaced by Monique Meilaq who immediately made her mark by blocking Camilleri's penalty kick.
The Saints pushed more players forward and on the hour, Dalli completed her hat-trick when she struck her team's fourth goal.
With Mgarr failing to react, Sta Venera added two more goals through Ottilia Borg (70) and Odette Micallef (85) to seal a comfortable win.
On Wednesday, Birkirkara, last season's runners-up, enjoyed an excellent start to their campaign after trouncing Mosta 4-0.
As the results clearly shows, Kenneth Costantino's Birkirkara were the better team on the day and took just five minutes to forge ahead through Kimberly Parnis.
The Stripes created numerous goalscoring chances in the opening 45 minutes but failed to add to their tally.
After the interval, Birkirkara maintained the upperhand, Deborah Pisani putting them two goals ahead on 55 minutes. Rachel Cuschieri concluded a fine personal move to extend Birkirkara's lead before Sacha Camilleri rounded up the scoring on 80 minutes.