Relegation issue wide open again

Msida St Joseph 2
Da Silva 30 pen.; A. Farrugia 82
Ħamrun Spartans 0

This was an unexpected twist to this season's Relegation Pool when the misfiring Msida St Joseph stunned Ħamrun Spartans to throw the fight for survival wide open.

Despite missing key players, the Saints produced a solid all-round performance that saw them soak up the early pressure before scoring two goals to bag three valuable points and join the Spartans on the 15-point mark, one ahead of Tarxien Rainbows and Qormi with only two matches left.

Msida coach Joe Abdilla was faced with a mammoth task to lift his side's fortunes after a negative run had seen the Saints sliding to bottom place. His work was cut out yesterday as he had three first-team players out of the equation.

Striker Pedro Calcado and defender Kenneth Spiteri were serving a one-match ban while Andrew Spiteri, another defender, is sidelined with knee trouble. Mark Camilleri, Stacey Vella and Kevin Mifsud were all roped in the Saints' starting formation.

Stephen D'Amato, the Ħamrun mentor, effected one change to the team that beat Qormi in their previous match. Skipper Rupert Mangion was out with a one-match ban. Diego Cucciardi started in midfield.

Ħamrun were soon on the offensive and after only two minutes Manolito Micallef nodded the ball into the path of Cucciardi whose fierce volley was pushed away to a corner by Matthew Camilleri, the Msida goalkeeper.

Cucciardi was again close on eight minutes when he rose high to meet Ryan Fenech's corner but his downward header bounce the wrong side of the upright.

The match was growing in intensity with Msida defending boldly and looking to expose any gaps in the Spartans defence through the pace of Marcos Aurelio.

On 28 minutes, Camilleri was forced to dive full stretch to palm away to a corner Sylvano Comvalius's shot.

At the other end, Aurelio found himself in ample space but mistimed his shot with only Ivan Casha to beat. However, in their next attack Msida opened the score.

Mark Camilleri was brought down in the Reds' box by Zoran Levniac as he was about to shoot and Andre Da Silva made no mistake from the resultant penalty.

The goal looked to have rattled the Spartans who looked out of shape and unable to produce any threat to the Msida goal. However, at the start of the second half, D'Amato's men looked to have recovered some lost confidence.

From a Micallef centre, the ball fell kindly to Steve Meilaq who fired over from a favourable position.

A minute later, Stefano Grima almost deviated the ball inside his own net when goalkeeper Camilleri was out to intercept a Spiteri cross. Luckily for the Msida, defender the ball rolled wide.

The Spartans were clearly holding the upperhand with Msida pegged in their own half, defending boldly their slim advantage.

The Saints' best attempt at goal after the interval arrived on 70 minutes and it almost reaped a second goal. They were awarded a free-kick from just outside the area and Da Silva's piledriver flew just over.

Time was running out for the Spartans. On 76 minutes D'Amato withdrew Meilaq and introduced veteran Stefan Sultana in a bid to save the match.

However, it was Msida who struck the killer blow eight minutes from time when in a swift break, Mark Camilleri was quick to deliver a perfect ball towards Adrian Farrugia who beat Casha with a firm header.

Cucciardi should have pulled one back in time added on but headed wide from routine distance to cap a disappointing outing for the Spartans.

Msida St Joseph
M. Camilleri-7.5, D. Cachia-7.5, S. Grima-6, T. Farrugia-6.5, S. Vella-6, A. Da Silva-7, K. Mifsud-6, K. Magro-6, A. Farrugia-7 ('84 E. Navarro), M. Aurelio-6.5, M. Camilleri-6.5.

Ħamrun Spartans
I. Casha-6, J. Bondin-6, F. Anton-5, Rod. Fenech-6, Z. Levniac-6.5, D. Cucciardi-6, M. Micallef-6, Ryan Fenech-6, G. Spiteri-5.5, S. Comvalius-5, S. Meilaq-5 ('76 S. Sultana).

Referee: Paul Caruana.

Yellow cards: Ryan Fenech, Comvalius, Vella, Rod. Fenech, Bondin.

BoV Player of the match: Matthew Camilleri (Msida St Joseph).