Ta' Soldi Rabat Depiro 1
BDO Sliema Hotsticks 2
With this upset at the hands of Sliema, Rabat have jeopardised their chances of winning the championship for an eighth consecutive time.
The Hotsticks must be congratulated for the way they played, giving little or no space to the Rabat forwards as they relied on well-engineered counter-attacks.
Rabat surged forward from the word go and could have opened the score early on had Shawn Falzon not hit wide when in an ideal position.
Luke Mallia then saved off Josef Antonelli and that was as close Rabat could get in those stages.
As the minutes ticked away, Sliema were growing in confidence and in one of their counter breaks they could have forged ahead but for a timely save by Ian Azzopardi on Leanne Gauci.
Just before the end of the first half, a Falzon stinger was stopped by Mallia.
In the second half, Rabat again went on the attack and, again, could not get past a resilient Sliema defence, well marshalled by Lukas Plaehn who played a blinder.
Sliema won a short corner on 47 minutes from which David Housley tapped the ball home after some good work between Dylan Lentini and Keith Vella. Sliema could have doubled when Housley set up Lentini who mishit his effort when in an excellent position.
But Sliema were not to be denied. On 55 minutes, a manoeuvred counter-attack between Shaun Grima and Housley ended with Lentini firing in goal no.2.
From the restart Rabat immediately pulled one back through Charlot Antonelli. They kept up the pressure to try and salvage the game but to no avail. Their efforts were somewhat confused as the young Sliema defence was good enough to absorb the pressure.
Laferla Insurance WH 0
Pasta Poiattti Qormi 3
This was a balanced match even though the final scoreline shows otherwise.
White Hart went straight on the attack and inside the third minute threw away a golden opportunity to open the score when Carl Tua pushed the ball wide with Ramon Chircop caught out of his charge.
Qormi won a free hit outside the shooting area on 10 minutes. Jonathan Borg pushed the ball hard inside the D with the ball ending in the back of the net off a defender's stick. To the surprise of one and all the umpire awarded a goal instead of a long corner.
David Agius missed a chance to equalise following a short corner move and on 33 minutes it had to be Chircop to effect a fine save off Luke Borg Costanzi.
Just before half-time, a double save by Vassallo Agius denied Qormi a second goal.
White Hart could have levelled matters soon after the restart but Chircop did well to stop a deflected Paul Torpiano effort.
On 46 minutes, Agius saw his hit just missing the posts and at the other end Julian Zahra's push at goal hit the upright.
Qormi were awarded a penalty stroke on 52 minutes which was converted by Borg. But, the game continued on the same rhythm with the ball swinging from one end to the other until Steve Tanti sealed off the match with a splendid goal on 67 minutes.
Qormi are now three points clear of Rabat in the standings and four points ahead of Young Stars with a game in hand.