Shead hands Tarxien first win

Tarxien Rainbows 1
Senglea Athletic 0

Simon Shead gave Tarxien Rainbows the best possible start to this year's Division One campaign after converting a second half penalty to hand his team the three points.

The match turned out to be a balanced affair with neither team looking capable of gaining the edge but Shead changed all that with his 70th minute goal that decided the match.

The Rainbows fielded several new faces in their squad including former San Gwann trio Malcolm Buttigieg, Luke Vella Critien and Andrew Decesare. They also paraded former Hibs and Marsa midfielder Essien Mbong and Ramon Schembri and Simon Muscat, previously on the books of Naxxar.

Senglea started the game on the offensive and went close in the third minute when an Anthony Ewurum's volley finished over after some fine work from Mark Tanti.

Tarxien's first attempt at goal arrived on six minutes when Angus Buhagiar's header looked destined to hit the net but Daniel Cosaitis was well placed to clear the danger.

The game lost much of its entertaining fare and the next goalscoring opportunity arrived on 31 minutes. This came when Tanti burst into the Tarxien area but his shot was blocked by Vella Critien.

With both sets of defenders still enjoying the upperhand after the interval it was Tarxien who came close when on 65 minutes Buhagiar's first-time shot was tipped away by George Attard in the Senglea goal.

Tarxien grabbed the all-important goal on 70 minutes when Ryan Grech was felled in the area by Tanti and the referee awarded a penalty. Shead cooly slotted the ball past Attard.

Tarxien almost made it 2-0 on 78 minutes when Buhagiar's pin-point pass found Shead who tried his luck but his effort finished just wide.

The Cottonera side had a golden opportunity to draw level late on when Tarxien keeper Anthony Curmi misjudged Jason Borg's cross but there were no Senglea players in the area to put the ball into the net as the Rainbows cleared the danger.

Tarxien Rainbows: A. Curmi, S. Sadowski, M. Caruana, G. Bencini, S. Muscat (M. Buttigieg), E. Mbong, S. Shead, A. Buhagiar (R. Schembri), A. Decesare, R. Grech, L. Vella Critien (O. Grech).

Senglea: G. Attard, D. Cosaitis, D. Okonkwo (L. Attard), K. Mifsud (J. Borg), C. Caruana, M. Tanti (D. Grech), K. Abela, C. Cuschieri, S. Aquilina, G. Bonello, A. Ewurum.

Referee: Anton Zammit.

Player of the Match: Angus Buhagiar (Tarxien Rainbows).

Next fixtures: (Centenary Stadium) Monday: 6 p.m. Qormi vs Vittoriosa; 8 p.m. Dingli vs Mellieha. Tuesday: 6 p.m. Marsa vs Tarxien; 8 p.m. Senglea vs St George's.