Stripes hold on to third spot

Birkirkara 0
Sliema Wanderers 0

Marsaxlokk's hopes of finishing third in the league vanished after their upset to Floriana in yesterday's opener but the issue was to be decided during the clash between Birkirkara and Sliema Wanderers.

The Stripes occupied third place for the best part of the season but a sequence of negative results in the Championship Pool coupled with the revival of Marsaxlokk and, to a lesser extent Sliema Wanderers, re-opened the issue.

An uneventful match produced little excitement and no goals but it was enough for Birkirkara who clung on to third spot while Sliema finished fourth, level with Marsaxlokk on 25 points.

Although Sliema failed to overtake Birkirkara, they seemed content to have ended their league commitments with a creditable draw and with no fresh injuries ahead of Friday's FA Trophy final against Valletta.

Yannis Tonna made his Sliema debut yesterday as Stephen Azzopardi elected to rest some regular players in view of their clash with Valletta.

Malta U-21 goalkeeper Henry Bonello regained his place in Sliema's line-up at the expense of Simon Agius.

Left-back Joseph Zerafa returned for Birkirkara after suspension forced him to miss the 4-0 debacle to Hibs on Monday.

Goalkeeper Bernard Paris and Bulgarians Ivailo Sokolov and Kirill Dimitrov-Mihaylov paid the price for their team's lame showing against Hibs. They were replaced by Omar Borg, Mauro Di Lello and Alan Tabone respectively.

The first chance of the game came Birkirkara's way after five minutes.

Getting on the end of a through-ball, Trevor Cilia powered into the box and fired a stinging drive that rattled the woodwork.

The danger was not over for Sliema as Alan Tabone retrieved possession in the box and passed to Michael Galea who skied his shot over the bar.

One hoped that these early missed opportunities would set the tone for an action-packed first half but this failed to materialise.

After a tepid interlude, Birkirkara threatened to forge ahead. Galea shrugged off Lucian Dronca and ran to the byline before pulling the ball back for Cilia whose central effort from inside the box came off the sliding Branko Nisevic.

By and large, the game remained devoid of creative fare with both sides struggling to get the ball into their opponents' box.

On one occasion, John Mintoff, back for Sliema after serving his one-match ban, jinked his way into the box but he was hustled out of possession by the Birkirkara defenders.

Birkirkara, who had Michael Galea leading their attack, fashioned a good move in the latter stages of the first half. Cilia put in a centre from the right and George Mallia, whose run into the box had escaped the attentions of the Sliema defenders, looked well-placed to head the ball home but the Birkirkara midfielder miscued his header. Samsiro Furfaro, who hade just replaced Dronca, had got the slightest of touches to the ball, his intervention wrong-footing Mallia.

Early in the second half, Roderick Bajada's free-kick for Sliema posed no problem for Borg. At the other end, Shaun Bajada's set-piece cross was punched away by Bonello.

Birkirkara appealed for a penalty when Krasen Valkov, who had just come on for Tabone, went down after being challenged by Furfaro, who replaced Dronca, but referee Saviour Tanti waved play on.

Buttigieg was forced into his second substitution as Thomas Paris was taken off on a stretcher after suffering an injury. Luke Sciberras took Paris's place.

With 14 minutes left, Cilia threatened to open the scoring with a fierce shot but Bonello leapt to his left to palm the ball away for a corner.

The game remained low on draw but six minutes from the end, Sliema came close to scoring but Nisevic headed just wide from Furfaro's cross.

Birkirkara
O. Borg-6, M. Di Lello-6, T. Paris-6 ('69 L. Sciberras-5.5), P. Fenech-6.5, T. Cilia-6.5, M. Galea-6, A. Tabone-5.5 ('46 K. Valkov-5.5), R. Hartvig-5, S. Bajada-6, J. Zerafa-6.5, G. Mallia-6 ('88 J. Holland).

Sliema Wanderers
H. Bonello-6, A. Muscat-5, K.P. Farrugia-5, B. Nisevic-6, N. Turner-5.5, Y. Tonna-5.5 ('65 L. Martinelli), I. Woods-6, L. Dronca-5 ('35 S. Furfaro-6), A. Mercieca-5 ('77 K. Grech), R. Bajada-6, J. Mintoff-5.

Referee: Saviour Tanti.

Yellow cards: Borg; Martinelli.

BoV player of the match: Trevor Cilia (Birkirkara).