Sirens stun Neptunes to reach final

Sirens 11
Neptunes 10
(3-1, 2-2, 4-5, 2-2)

Sirens Hard Rock Cafe stunned national league champions Neptunes Vodafone with a stylish performance to reach the final of the Division One Knock-Out yesterday.

Jurgen Borg's strike 42 seconds from the end turned out to be the winning goal that kept Sirens on course to successfully retain the Knock-Out competition for a second successive season when they face Sliema in tomorrow's final.

The match turned out to be a tight affair with Sirens managing to overcome the loss of Paul Privitera, who was fouled out in the third session, as they put pressure on the Neptunes defence to complete a remarkable success.

Neptunes were a shadow of the side which saw them run riot against Sliema in their final league match on Saturday. The Balluta Bay team have only themselves to blame for missing several scoring opportunities, scoring two from six man-up sets.

Sirens were off to a flier and took a three-goal lead in the first session with some effective play. They man-marked well each Neptunes player, even though committing several fouls, to gain the edge.

Borg put Sirens early on, with Neptunes failing to restore parity from a man-up set when Privitera was sent off. Minutes later Privitera fouled Steve Camilleri in the four metre-area and Vujasinovic saw his effort from a penalty well blocked by Alan Grech.

Neptunes paid dearly for this miss as Clint Mercieca and Karl Montfort hit the target from around six metres to put Sirens 3-0 up.

The Balluta Bay team finally managed to convert their first man-up set when Sean Gravina made it 3-1 just before the end of the first session.

There was nothing to separate from these teams in the second session. Goals from Borg and Privitera put Sirens in a commanding 5-1 lead.

But Neptunes soon hit back and Vujasinovic and Brownrigg scored in quick succession to put the Reds back in contention.

Nine goals were scored in an exciting third session. Steve Camilleri made it 5-4 but a long-range shot from Fava restored Sirens' two-goal lead. Vujasinovic was again on target for Neptunes as Sirens had Privitera fouled out with three minutes 12 seconds to go.

Goals kept flowing with Fava hitting the target twice for Sirens in between Nicky Lanzon's goal for Neptunes.

Lanzon, again, reduced the gap to 8-7 before Marcx restored Sirens' two goal lead. Matthew Pisani scored the last goal of the session for Neptunes to put them just one goal behind at the start of the final session.

Camilleri restored parity early on and Neptunes looked set to turn the match in their favour when Vujasinovic put them 10-9 ahead with two minutes 50 seconds to go.

But Sirens were not ready to throw in the towel and Charlie Zammit equalised with one minute 17 seconds to go before Borg slammed home the winner from an acute angle.

David Camilleri almost netted a dramatic equaliser in the final 11 seconds but his shot hit the post.

Sirens: A. Grech, P. Fava 3, T. Marcx 1, P. Privitera 1, J. Rizzo Naudi, P. Borg , J.Borg 3, D. Cutajar, K. Montfort 1, C. Zammit 1, C. Mercieca 1, R. Attard, E. Arrigo

Neptunes: N. Gouder, S. Gravina 1, M. Miggiani, M. Stellini, J. Brownrigg 1, V. Vujasinovic 3, S. Camilleri 1, L. Attard, D. Camilleri, N. Lanzon 2, S. Mizzi, G. Sammut, M. Pisani 2.

Refs: Ivan Scriha, Maurizio Di Chiara.

Tomorrow: Division Two KO final - 5.30 p.m. Marsascala vs Ta' Xbiex. Division One KO final - 6.45 p.m. Sliema vs Sirens.