Yesterday’s Balluta Bay derby between Neptunes Emirates and San Ġiljan Giuseppe’s was rendered useless in view of the league format and the table positions which have been practically defined for the purposes of the play-offs, starting on August 26.

The outcome was a prestige-tagged win for the Reds which has helped them maintain a clean sheet.

San Ġiljan’s defeat may yet cause them the runners-up place which they have occupied for several weeks. However, that matters little for the Saints since they will very probably meet Sliema McDonald’s in the decisive semi-final play-offs.

Given the way the new-look competition developed this year the futility of the league-cum-knockout experiment has surfaced and made a number of matches as mere formalities.

In any case, Neptunes underlined their resolve to keep charging away relentlessly.

Yesterday, their superiority was beyond question as they had already built a 16-5 lead by the end of the penultimate session, with eight-goal Tamas Molnar netting seven times by then and the champions scoring a couple of exquisite goals.

There were more wholesale changes in the last session as the Reds eased off to a 20-11 victory.

In a match which was a must-win contest for 3CX Exiles to keep alive their faint hopes of ending in the top four zone, the team from Sliema put up a stern fight before dis-missing Sirens Ritter Sport 11-10 to narrow the gap to four points from the northerners.

It was a duel which drove home the yo-yo form of both teams, especially that of Sirens.

After Exiles took the lead, Sirens responded with two goals before the scoreline was reversed in the second session for the teams to shift ends in parity.

Exiles downed their opponents to the tune of 4-1 in the third session with Marco Cuk being the prime scorer for his team. Their zone was denying Sirens effective inroads.

Exiles built a 9-5 lead midway through the fourth session before Sirens’ Csaba Kiss scored another two to make it four personal goals and reduce the arrears to 9-7 with just over two minutes left.

However, Martin Calleja soon scored again to open a three-goal lead for Exiles before Clint Mercieca and Kiss followed suit to narrow the gap to 10-9.

In a frantic finale, Cuk made it 11-9 with David Cutajar’s goal for Sirens being to no avail.

Summaries

Neptunes 20
San Ġiljan 11
(4-2, 6-1, 6-3, 4-5)

Neptunes: I. Bugeja, N. Lanzon 1, E. Aquilina 1, M. Stellini 3, J. Camilleri, K. Debattista, S. Camilleri 4, V. Gojkovic 2, B. Lanzon, S. Gravina, R. Sciortino, T. Molnar 8, M. Pisani 1.

San Ġiljan: D. Camilleri, J.C. Cutajar, N. Sutic 4, K. Galea 1, F. Trajkovic 4, K. Dowling, L. Grixti 1, A. Bianchi 1, M. Borg Spiteri, C. Gialanze, P. Fava, A. Galea, K. Schembri.

Referees: M. Dalli, D. Di Martire.

Exiles 11
Sirens 10
(1-2, 2-1, 4-1, 4-6)

Exiles: A. Borg Cole, J. Rizzo Naudi 1, K. Rizzo Naudi 1, D. Pace Lupi, T. Sullivan, M. Calleja 2, M. Cuk 4, K. Grixti, A. Zarb Cousin, A. Cousin 2, N. Portelli, A. Sciberras, K. Lanzon 1.

Sirens: J. Sammut, A. Attard, N. Grixti, P. Borg, C. Kiss 4, P. Micallef, J. Borg 2, D. Cutajar 3, G. Krstonosic, C. Zammit, L. Caruana, D. Zammit, C. Mercieca 1.

Referees: M. Angilleri, D. Di Martire.

Standings