Late Sliema flurry sinks Swallows

Dingli Swallows 1
Da Silva 26
Sliema Wanderers 3
Mifsud Triganza 71; Woods 76 pen.; Azzopardi 78

Sliema Wanderers had to dig in before lowering the colours of a resolute Dingli side in a hard-fought encounter yesterday.

Although the final scoreline might suggest that the Blues had a comfortable afternoon, events at Corradino had a completely different tinge following a gutsy performance from the bottom-placed team that almost piled further misery on the misfiring Blues.

When Andre Rocha Da Silva put the underdogs in front after 26 minutes, Dingli pulled down the shutters and a surprise result was in the offing until Jean Pierre Mifsud Triganza produced a moment of brilliance to ignite his team's comeback.

All in all, this was an encouraging debut for Mark Marlow, who yesterday made his first appearance on the Sliema bench. He only had one foreigner in his starting line-up, defender Lucian Dronca, as Julio Alcorse missed out with a thigh injury and Brazilian Pedrinho was dropped to the bench.

Sliema had the first chance early on when, from a Clayton Failla corner, Josef Mifsud headed over from a good position.

On 12 minutes, Ian Ciantar mistimed his header from a free-kick and two minutes later Mifsud Triganza fired over from an inviting position. Ivan Woods should have put Sliema ahead but keeper Jeffrey Farrugia was on the right spot to keep his effort out.

For all their possession, Sliema were struggling to carve openings and their passing left much to be desired. Instead, it was Dingli who stormed ahead. In a fast break Joseph Okonkwo served the steaming Da Silva who beat goalkeeper Simon Agius with a low drive.

Sliema had a great chance to pull level two minutes later but they missed their chance. Failla was upended in the box by Roderick Briffa and from the penalty Dronca was denied by an excellent Jeffrey Farrugia save.

Sliema went all out in search of an early goal after the restart. However, it was Dingli who almost doubled their lead when Okonkwo found himself clean through but opted to shoot hastily from the distance instead of advancing and placing the ball beyond the keeper's reach.

Marlow introduced Pedrinho as he looked to add more firepower to his forward line. On 66 minutes Da Silva did well to move past two defenders before serving Okonkwo who failed to control from an inviting position.

Farrugia did well to keep out a Mifsud Triganza effort. However, the Blues' persistence paid off on 71 minutes when Ian Azzopardi picked Mifsud Triganza inside the area and the Sliema striker showed remarkable skill to volley the ball past the Dingli keeper.

The goal injected more confidence in Marlow's lads and on 72 minutes Farrugia pulled off another fine save on Alex Muscat.

Sliema were then awarded a second penalty when the referee adjudged that Shaun Tellus had used his arm to block Failla's shot. The Dingli defender was subsequently dismissed and Woods cooly converted from the spot.

That second goal killed off Dingli who conceded again 12 minutes from the end when Azzopardi headed Muscat's cross past Farrugia.

Playing today: National Stadium 19.30 Floriana vs Birkirkara.

Dingli Swallows
J. Farrugia-6.5, R. Briffa-6, S. Tellus, R. Spiteri-6.5 ('89 C. Sammut), K. Formosa-6.5, C. Muscat-6, D. Cachia-6 ('81 C. Azzopardi), K. Borg-5, M. Borg-5.5, A. Rocha Da Silva-7, J. Okonkwo-7.

Sliema Wanderers
S. Agius-6, A. Muscat-6.5, I. Azzopardi-6, J. Mifsud-5, R. Fenech-5 ('52 Pedrinho-5), M. Scerri-5.5, J.P. Mifsud Triganza-7.5, I. Woods-7 ('86 N. Turner), L. Dronca-5.5, J. Mintoff-4 ('67 I. Ciantar-6), C. Failla-6.

Referee: Glenn Tonna.

Yellow cards: Briffa; Scerri; Failla; Dronca.

Missed penalty: Dronca (S) 28.

Red card: Tellus (D) 75.

BOV player of the match: Jean Pierre Mifsud Triganza (Sliema Wanderers).