Curmi denies Greens

Msida St Joseph 1
Curmi 86
Floriana 1
Darmanin 1

Floriana and Msida shared the spoils in a low-key encounter yesterday. The Greens looked on their way to a slender win. Ryan Darmanin had put them ahead inside the opening minute.

However, they were made to pay for their profligacy in front of goal when Iro Curmi struck a late equaliser to hand the already-doomed Msida their first positive result after three successive defeats.

With both teams having nothing to play for, bar pride, both coaches opted to give a rare chance to their fringe players.

Floriana's Zoran Popovic roped in Mauro Grioli and Jermaine Brincat while his counterpart, Keith Gouder, handed a start to Larson Agius.

Floriana took just 53 seconds to break the stalemate when Grioli sent a delightful throughball towards Darmanin who ran through before firing past Manuel Bartolo.

That early breakthrough put Floriana in complete control with Msida struggling to create any scoring opportunity.

Darmanin almost grabbed his second of the match on 20 minutes when he was first to Michael Ghebru's cross but his half-volley flashed wide. The Floriana forward was Msida's main threat and his header also went wide following another Ghebru service.

Msida's first attempt at goal arrived on 32 minutes when Andrew Formosa picked Miguel Ciantar whose header never troubled the Floriana keeper.

After the interval, Popovic withdrew Orosco Anonam and introduced Doffo. The Argentine almost left an instant mark when his free-kick was pushed away to a corner by Bartolo.

From the flag-kick, taken by Doffo, Mark Spiteri nodded the ball into the path of Brian Said whose shot was stopped by Bartolo.

At the other end, Joseph D'Amato's shot looked to have had the better of keeper Micallef but Ciantar was at hand avert danger.

The match lost much of its intensity at this stage. Darmanin was again close with a glancing header that finished just over.

Msida created a good opportunity to draw level eight minutes from time when Ciantar found himself in ample space but fired wide.

However, three minutes from time it was all-square again when a cross-shot by substitute Iro Curmi, who had earlier replaced D'Amato, flew past a surprised Micallef.

Msida St Joseph: M. Bartolo-6, L. Micallef-5, M. Borda-6, T. Farrugia-5, L. Agius-5, Z. Levniac-6, J. D'Amato-6 ('69 I. Curmi-6.5), A. Spiteri-6 ('77 V. Brincat), B. Borg-5 ('69 P. Sakcai-5), A. Formosa-4.5, M. Ciantar-5.

Floriana: J. Micallef-5, O. Anonam-6 ('46 P. Doffo-6.5), J. Brincat-6, B. Said-6, C. Ciantar-6.5, J. Borg-6, M. Spiteri-6.5 ('75 L. Agius), R. Darmanin-7, O. Bugeja-6, M. Grioli-6.5 ('61 G. Marney-5.5), M. Ghebru-6.

Referee: Clayton Pisani.

Yellow card: Larson Agius.

BOV Player of the match: Ryan Darmanin (Floriana).