Magpies fight on

Rabat Ajax 2
Senglea Athletic 0

Rabat Ajax continued their fight for survival after beating the already-doomed Senglea Athletic yesterday and are now just one point behind third-bottom team San Ġwann. Although they were a superior outfit, the Magpies were erratic at times and found it difficult to find openings in a tightly-packed Senglea defence.

For Rabat, Wilson Caushi played another superb game along with Adam Smeir, another important cog in the Rabat machine.

The Magpies started the game on the attack but were rarely dangerous as Senglea closed all gaps to their goal, playing their hearts out as if their season depended on this match.

It was Senglea who came close first when on 15 minutes, Justin Felice's first-time effort just missed the target.

Rabat had to wait until the 39th minute to open the scoring when Smeir received an inviting pass from Glenn Magri before ramming the ball home.

On the stroke of half-time, Rabat could have added a second but Albanian Caushi was thwarted by goalkeeper George Attard, this after some good work by defender Jonathan Bezzina.

On resumption Charles Borg's side continued to dictate matters. A Glen Magri drive, from a Smeir centre, was a whisker away from goal. Rabat defender Christopher Schembri then struck the ball home from 10 metres out to make it 2-0 for his team.

Rabat let their foot off the pedal after Schembri's goal, giving Senglea the chance to come out of their defensive shell.

Five minutes from time Caushi tried a long-distance shot which was saved by Attard. A minute later Lydon Micallef drove the ball just over the crossbar following a good move which started by Smeir.

Rabat Ajax
J. Borg, J. Bezzina, J. Tonna, J. Caruana, A. Smeir (D. Galea), D. Falzon, G. Magri (L. Micallef), W. Caushi, C. Schembri, E. Muscat, E. Azzopardi.

Senglea Athletic
G. Attard, D. Aquilina, D. Zahra (G. Brincat), I. Tarek, J. Felice, S. Zampa, B. Zerafa, O. Ellul (C. Borg), A. Sciortino, S. Aquilina, D. Cosaitis.

Referee: Clayton Pisani.

Man of the match: Adam Smeir (Rabat Ajax).