Azzopardi reaping Sliema dividends

The winds of change that blew across Sliema Wanderers the past few months seem to have left their mark as the Blues, who parted ways with some established players this summer, caught the eyes with a couple of bold performances in their first outings of the new Premier League season.

In the league opener against Valletta, Stephen Azzopardi's Sliema outplayed the champions for most of the second half before settling for a one-all draw and last weekend they impressed even further when they beat Ħamrun Spartans 2-0 despite having Serbian forward Kosta Bjedov dismissed on 33 minutes.

Although Sliema's pedigree as one of the leading sides in the country was never put in question, the departures of former skipper Brian Said, goalkeeper Murphy Akanji, midfielders Orosco Anonam and Andre Rocha Da Silva, and striker Etienne Barbara had raised a few eyebrows on how competitive the team would be this season.

With a few additions to his squad, coach Stephen Azzopardi has embarked on a three-year rebuilding process aimed at giving the emerging talent enough experience to develop Sliema into a championship-winning side by the turn of the decade.

"I think the early indications look promising," Azzopardi told The Times yesterday.

"When the new calendar was announced, we had targeted at least a point from our match against Valletta and a win over Ħamrun. So, at the moment we are on track.

"However, more than the projections, the most pleasing aspect of all is the character shown by the team in these matches. We had some key players missing in our first match and despite finding ourselves a goal down, the team showed tremendous fighting spirit after the break to earn a point.

"Against Ħamrun, we ended up with ten men after 33 minutes. During the half-time talk the players still looked highly-motivated. We knew we could still win the match and the players duly obliged with a strong second-half showing. That shows what a great attitude these players have."

Azzopardi has been coaching in the top flight for a few years now and he has enough experience not to get carried away so early in the season.

"The opening was good but there's more work to do," Azzopardi said.

"Sliema's plan is clear. We want to give the young players enough playing time to mature. This summer we secured the futures of players like Alex Muscat and Roderick Bajada while others like John Mintoff and Clifford Gatt Baldacchino are slowly finding their feet in the first team.

"We want to be among the teams challenging for the honours and qualification for Europe is our chief goal. The players have been training very seriously and they are being driven forward by a huge ambition to succeed which is very important in our sport."

Looking at the other teams in the championship, Azzopardi thinks that it won't be long before the likely title favourites will drift away from the others.

"In my opinion the championship contenders won't take too long to start imposing their superiority as the difference in quality, in contrast with the other teams, is there for all to see," he said.

"The others are more or less of the same level. It will be very difficult to say which teams will make the Championship Pool and the others missing out."