Sliema McDonald's were made to fight hard yesterday to obtain their spoils against a much-improved and determined Sirens Ritter Sport who kept within distance of their opponents and, but for an adverse 4-1 scoreline in the third session, they could have sprung a surprise.

The champions edged Sirens in a close first session, converting a penalty and a man-up after taking a 1-0 lead. In between, the Northerners had twice drawn level.

Karl Izzo's Sirens maintained the pace with their opponents in the second session with Yugoslav Vasovic emulating Bogdan Rath when reaching his hat-trick and helping his team edge the Blues 4-3 to bring the second session of the game to an end on 6-6.

Until midway through the third session, it was still tight with Sliema leading 7-6 but two quick goals opened a three-goal advantage for Sliema after which a goal at each end left the Blues ahead by three goals.

Up to this point, Sliema had an almost man-up record.

But Sirens still had some fight in them and managed to reduce the deficit to 10-9 with four minutes left. However, their former stalwart Paul Privitera, now with Sliema, netted his fourth goal to make it 11-9.

With 18 seconds left, Vasovic (he totalled five goals) closed the gap again to make it a nervous ending for Sliema. The champions managed to weather the storm to preserve victory.

In the second match of the evening, Neptunes Emirates carried far too many guns for neighbours San Ġiljan Firetech and a splendid performance from them in the first three sessions annihilated the Saints.

The Reds took a 5-2 lead inside the first eight minutes which were marked by double shielding on the respective centres.

San Ġiljan managed to respond to their opponents' first two goals but then Neptunes netted three times without reply, the last being a superb back-hand by Sean Gravina.

With Neptunes blocking effectively and denying their nervy opponents on four consecutive man-ups, it was no surprise that they increased their advantage by another three goals in the second session.

The conversions came from a break by Niki Lanzon and the expert Vladimir Vujasinovic who netted with a cheeky lob and then a thunderbolt.

There was no respite from Neptunes who added four more in the third session, one of which another masterly lob from Vujasinovic followed by a brace from old warhorse Tamas Molnar.

Sergey Markoch made use of all the tailenders in the last part of the game, resting his heavyweights temporarily.

The match had long been over as a contest and Saints coach Marco Risso could at least see his team limit the damage as the sides shared four goals.

Summaries

Sirens 10
Sliema 11
(2-3, 4-3, 1-4, 3-1)

Sirens: J. Sammut, A. Attard, L. Caruana, P. Borg, J. Spiteri Staines, R. Mock, T. Varga, D. Cutajar 1, J. Borg 1, C. Zammit, Y. Vasovic 5, D. Zammit 1, C. Mercieca 2, E. Arrigo, J. Cremona.

Sliema: R. Coleiro, J. Gabaretta, N. Lubrano, P. Privitera 4, M. Meli 1, J. Soler 1, D. Paolella, J. Brownrigg 1, C. Debono 1, A. Kunac, M. Rizzo, B. Rath 3, A. Bianchi.

Referees: A. DeRaffaele, M. Dalli.

Neptunes 15
San Ġiljan 7
(5-2, 3-0, 5-3, 2-2)

Neptunes: N. Gouder, N. Lanzon 1, B. Lanzon, M. Stellini 2, D. Camilleri, V. Vujasinovic 3, S. Camilleri 3, J. Camilleri 1, B. Buhagiar, S. Gravina 2, Z. Mizzi, T. Molnar 3, M. Pisani, I. Bugeja, K. Debattista.

San Ġiljan: D. Camilleri, C. Spiteri de Barro, M. Pace, K. Galea, C. Gialanze 1, K. Dowling, H. Nossek 3, A. Bianchi, E. Aquilina, R. Scerri, P. Fava, M. Toth 3, K. Schembri, A. Borda, K. Galea.

Referees: M. Dalli, R. Spiteri.

Next matches

Tomorrow - 6 p.m. Marsascala vs Ta' Xbiex; 7.15 p.m. San Ġiljan vs Sirens.