American striker Michael Mecerod came off the bench to claim a clinical injury-time strike to give Floriana a dramatic win over Qormi, who were left to rue some amazing misses.
Mecerod’s last gasp strike capped a fast and furious contest played out between Floiriana and Qormi with few other chances. Qormi probably had the better of chances, but two substitutions that saw Pablo Doffo and Christian Cassar replacing Clyde Borg and Joseph Borg gave Todor Raykov’s side fresh impetus with Floriana becoming a dominant force in the final minutes.
Floriana only managed the odd break as Qormi largely continued to dominate possession, with Joseph Farrugia the fulcrum and the energetic Abubakar Bello-Osagie full of elusive running. On the 68th minute, after running almost the entire length of the pitch, Bello-Osagie could only look on in anguish as his shot hit the base of the post and bounced to safety.
Few moments later, Bartolo passed the ball back to Bello-Osagie but the Nigerian’s shot struck a melee of players between him and goal as George Mallia trying to get his head on the ball, ran out of the touch. Finally the clearance dropped to Cleavon Frendo who shot straight into the chest of Saidi.
Six minutes from time, Christian Caruana’s timed run in the box allowed him to latch on to Micallef’s pass but his header rippled the Qormi side-netting rather than the goal.
But on the other side of the pitch, Osagie stung Saidi’s palms with a wicked header from Joseph Farrugia’s corner and Cassar somehow scrambled clear.
The game looked to be heading for a stalemate when Mecerod having combined well with Cassar, found space on the right of the penalty box and sent a low drive beyond the exposed goalkeeper.