Rainbows secure first promotion

The post-war efforts of Little Rainbows to gain promotion to the Second Division were at last rewarded in 1956-57. In previous years, the club from Tarxien many a time came close to achieving their ambition but somehow always fell at the last hurdle.

In 1956-57, Rainbows contested Section B of the Third Division where they had to withstand the strong challenge of Balzan Youths and, to a lesser extent, Msida St Joseph. The championship in those days was played on a one round basis, giving teams very little chance of recuperating from a setback.

The Rainbows beat Msida 3-0, Siġġiewi 1-0, St Peter's 1-0, Senglea Athletic 1-0, Għargħur 2-0, Żurrieq 4-0 and drew 1-1 with Gudja United before meeting Balzan in a match which decided the final outcome of the section's honours.

Before this match, Little Rainbows were lagging behind Balzan by a point. The latter had won all their matches and the Tarxien team dropping a point against Gudja.

Little Rainbows went on to beat Balzan by a solitary goal, netted by Sammut. The Blues' inside-left headed the ball over the advancing goalkeeper and into the net after 15 minutes.

In the other section, Qormi Youngsters took the honours by a single point over Sta Venera Lightnings. The Saints were the only team to inflict a defeat on the eventual winners. They were favourites to top their section but an unexpected defeat against Dingli Swallows and a point lost against Lija spoiled Sta Venera's chances.

At one time, Qormi looked as if they were going to face Sta Venera in a decider. This came about when Lija Athletic were disbanded by the MFA after their players manhandled the referee in the league game against Qormi.

The council declared Lija's results null. Sta Venera, therefore, gained the point lost against Lija and finished level with Qormi. Later on, however, Lija petitioned the MFA to reconsider their decision. The council re-examined the case and decided to keep Lija in the league up to the end of the competition.

Lija, however, had to apply for re-election at the end of the season. As a consequence Sta Venera lost their chance of contesting a decider and Qormi were declared section winners.

In the decider, Little Rainbows finally fulfilled their ambition which had eluded them since the 1940s. They crushed Qormi 3-0.

This was a game the Rainbows dominated from the beginning. They left no-one in doubt about their intentions as they penned their opponents in their own area for long spells.

Putting up plucky resistance in the face of the continuous waves of attacks by their opponents, the Youngsters had Slowe to thank for reaching half-time still on level terms.

The Qormi goalkeeper parried all efforts thrown at him by the goal-hungry Rainbows and together with left-back Cilia and centre-half Agius, was the inspiration of the whole team.

But even Slowe could not stop the Rainbows in the second period. The Blues resumed their hammering of the Youngsters' goal and Borg finally found a way through.

After this goal, Qormi's hopes crumbled and Rainbows ran riot.

Borg scored his second goal of the afternoon and Grech hit in the third and final goal.

Having secured promotion to the Second Division, Little Rainbows turned their eyes to the knock-out competition. They had a more or less easy passage to the final after eliminating Balzan 3-0, Żurrieq 1-0 and Gudja 2-0.

Tarxien's opponents in the final were Dingli. Contrary to the Rainbows, the Swallows had a hard task to reach the final. In the first round they had to meet St Peter's twice after drawing 1-1 in their first encounter. In the replay, they earned a place in the quarter-finals with a 3-1 victory.

In the next round, Dingli should have played Lija but the latter were serving a suspension and Dingli were awarded a walkover. In the semi-finals, the Swallows, once again, had to meet their opponents, Msida, twice.

After a 1-1 draw, they won the replay 1-0 to reach the final.

The Swallows' fine run, however, came to an end when the Rainbows made sure of making a clean sweep of Third Division honours with a convincing 2-0 victory.