Sliema maintain momentum

Sliema 13
San Ġiljan 8
(4-2, 4-2, 2-3, 3-1)

Sliema McDonald's emulated Neptunes, who had won their spurs against Sirens on Friday, when avenging their preliminary round defeat at the hands of San Ġiljan Tropicana Juices, this time beating the Saints fairly and squarely to keep up their momentum in the race for the league title.

The Blues were the superior outfit as they took their man-up sets better and provided the drive and power needed to win matches of this sort where there is an element of intense exchanges.

Apart from that, Sliema had a wider squad, with players like John Brownrigg, Michael Rizzo and Daniel Paolella slotting in important, even if not plentiful, goals to complement those of John Soler, who netted four, and the improving Jerome Gabaretta, scorer of a hat-trick.

Meanwhile, Sergio Afric had Rajmund Fodor back in the team alongside Bogdan Rath while San Ġiljan had Federico Pagani replacing the suspended Boris Popovic who left Malta temporarily.

The Blues had a stronger start, going into a 4-2 first-session lead, their goals coming from Gabaretta, Fodor, Rath and Soler, with Yugoslav Vasovic making it 2-2 temporarily.

Sliema extended their lead to four goals after the first resumption which they again won 4-2. The goals came from Gabaretta, twice, Soler and Brownrigg, with Pagani and Vasovic replying for San Ġiljan.

Although the champions increased their advantage to 9-4 early in the third session, the Saints still had something to say as they struck three times through Pagani, Kayne Lanzon and Vasovic, to make it 9-7 before Brownrigg scored the 10th goal for Sliema.

At this point, the Saints were very wasteful, as was the case in the fourth session when they lost two crucial man-ups. Paolella, Rizzo and Soler made it safe for Sliema, with the useful Claudio Spiteri de Barro scoring his team's last goal.

The intensity had abated amid the exclusion with substitution of Vasovic who joined Matthew Zammit.

For Sliema, Paolella and Jonathan Valletta were also fouled out.

The Blues' victory set them up in good frame for the hot clash against Neptunes on Friday.

Sliema: J. Cachia, J. Gabaretta 3, N. Lubrano, R. Fodor 1, M. Meli, J. Soler 4, D. Paolella 1, J. Brownrigg 2, C. Debono, J. Valletta, M. Rizzo 1, B. Rath 1, R. Coleiro.

San Ġiljan: D. Camilleri, C. Spiteri de Barro 1, C. Gialanze, F. Pagani 2, M. Borg Spiteri, M. Zammit, P. Fava, A. Bianchi, M. Pace, K. Schembri, Y. Vasovic 4, J. Xerri de Caro, K. Lanzon 1.

Referees: P. Balzan, R. Rovida.

Division Two

Exiles 17
Marsaxlokk 12
(5-2, 4-3, 5-2, 3-5)

In the opening match, valid for Division Two, Exiles Jet Services broke early to ease off to an expected comfortable victory over Marsaxlokk Freeport.

The Sliema team were understandably faster and played with more co-ordination.

The southerners had little response to their opponents' more forceful play.

Exiles: A. Borg Cole, J. Rizzo Naudi 1, K. Rizzo Naudi 1, D. Pace Lupi, T. Sullivan 7, A. Cachia, R. Chomakhidtze 3, K. Grixti, A. Zarb Cousin, A. Cousin 4, S. Vassallo, K. Enriquez, M. Calleja 1.

Marsaxlokk: E. Arrigo, G. Attard, R. Calleja, A. Farrugia 1, A. Razzi 6, C. Bugeja, M. Bartolocci, E. Bonello 1, M. Buttigieg, K. Grima Scott, D. Attard 2, M. Zammit, N. Xuereb.

Referees: A. DeRaffaele, R. Spiteri.

Next fixtures

Friday: (Div. Two) 6.15 p.m. Marsascala vs Otters; (Div. One) 7.30 p.m. Neptunes vs Sliema.

Saturday: (Div. Two) 5.15 p.m. Marsaxlokk vs Ta' Xbiex; (Div. One) 6.30 p.m. San Ġiljan vs Sirens.