Buttigieg's Midas touch puts Birkirkara back on track

For the past couple of weeks, John Buttigieg has been a man on a mission at Birkirkara. After replacing Stephen Azzopardi as coach of the Malta champions, Buttigieg, a former international defender, had the onus of restoring the team's pride and help them salvage a largely disappointing campaign by securing participation in European football next season.

When he was handed the job on March 6, things looked grim for Buttigieg as he had to take charge of a group of players whose confidence was at an all-time low following damaging defeats against Valletta (1-3 and 0-3) and a humiliating 6-1 mauling by Premier League leaders Marsaxlokk. Those successive upsets relegated the team to an unfamiliar sixth place in the Championship Pool with their ambitions in tatters.

However, Buttigieg's magic wand seems to have done wonders so far as under his guidance the team went through a metamorphosis.

Displaying great tactical organisation and fighting spirit, the Stripes battled their way to vital wins over Sliema Wanderers (2-1) and Msida St Joseph (3-1) that catapulted them to third place in the standings, level on points with Valletta. They now look a good bet to challenge for a top-three berth at the end of the season.

Contacted by The Times on the morrow of their victory over Msida, Buttigieg refused to accept all the plaudits for the team's recent transformation by himself.

Instead, he revealed that the secret behind the current good form was all-round commitment shown by his players in training.

"I think the players should take all the praise for our current good spell of form," Buttigieg said.

"Since my very first day, they have been excellent. Their contribution was top class and now we are reaping the dividends of their sheer hard work during training.

"Still, there is a long way to go for us. I think, as things stand at the moment our best chance is to finish third but to achieve that we must maintain consistency."

Against Msida, Buttigieg said that taking a 2-0 lead midway through the first half was crucial for his team.

Birkirkara's second goal came from a highly debatable penalty, awarded for a handball although many were convinced that Saints wingback Pio Sciriha had touched the ball back to his keeper with his chest.

However, the Birkirkara coach felt that the referee was right to award the penalty.

"From the bench I thought it was a clear decision," Buttigieg remarked.

"I think the Msida player used his arm to stop the ball and the referee was right. Going 2-0 up was decisive for us. Msida are a hard team to beat. In fact, they pulled a goal back before half-time.

"But we did well to keep control of the match. I felt that we had enough chances to secure victory much earlier than we did. But, in the end we fully deserved the points."

Buttigieg is refusing to get carried away though and admitted that all the good work achieved in the last two matches will prove useless unless they fail to beat Hibernians in their next match.

"If we are to reach our goal and qualify for Europe, it's vital that we keep winning on matches," Buttigieg said.

"As I see it Marsaxlokk look to be one step ahead of the others. But, the other five teams in the Championship Pool are more or less of the same calibre. All teams are good enough to beat each other in the remaining matches. That, in my opinion, makes it even more important for us to embark on a series of good results.

"Sliema look favourites for second place but third place is well within our reach. Consistency is the key at this stage and now our focus is already on our next match.

"Hibernians have talented youngsters in the team and we're expecting a tough match. But, on this form we should feel confident enough of another victory."