Dingli Swallows 0
Rabat Ajax 1

Rabat beat neighbours Dingli Swallows to go second in the table. One goal was enough for the Magpies as Arlindo Rustemi headed home the winner in the second half.

It was Rabat’s fourth victory of the season in front of a sizeable crowd at the Tedesco Stadium.

Rabat started brightly and Albanian Rusemi tried his luck with his menacing shot bouncing off defender Francis Owusu.

Dingli replied with a Rigers Ceka free-kick that deflected to a corner by the Rabat wall. From the flag-kick, Warren Chircop hit wide.

Five minutes from the break, Ryan Micallef, with only the Dingli keeper to beat, hit badly after being put through by Adam Smeir.

David Azzopardi’s piledriver was parried by Jeffrey Farrugia and on the stroke of half-time a good run by Leontiv Konda, for Dingli, was stopped by keeper Sean Mintoff.

Rabat surged forward and forged ahead on 71 minutes when Rustemi scored from an Azzopardi centre. A minute later, Roderick Briffa cleared off the line a Smeir inswinger which had beaten Farrugia.

Dingli’s efforts were to no avail and their hopes were dashed when Owusu was sent off in stoppage time for a rough tackle on substitute Justin Felice.

Dingli: J. Farrugia, F. Owusu, P. Ciantar (A. Portelli), L. Konda, W. Chircop (C. Mizzi), K. Formosa, R. Ceka, E. Farrugia, S. Meilak, R. Vella, R. Briffa.

Rabat: S. Mintoff, N. Caruana, C. Schembri, J. Cornforth, J. Caruana, A. Smeir (D. Falzon), A. Rustemi (J. Felice), C. Muscat, R. Micallef (Y. Cauchi), D. Azzopardi, C. Gauci.

Referee: Paul Caruana.

Man of the match: Joseph Caruana (Rabat Ajax).

Vittoriosa Stars 1
Melita 4

Vittoriosa lost ground in the race for promotion after conceding a second successive defeat and now have only one point to show from their last three matches.

The initial stages showed that the Stars were putting in a fight and after Marcelo Pereira was foiled by Melita keeper Matthew Sapiano, Ryan Sell slotted home from routine distance to open the score.

It took Melita 10 minutes to draw level, however, George Gribbon heading home from a free-kick.

A Lopez Fereira free-kick for Vittoriosa just missed the target but Melita soon started to run the show and on 35 minutes Gribbon scored from a free-kick to make it 2-1.

The game continued on a high tempo with Martin Gregory’s Amateurs more lethal up front.

In fact, on 56 minutes Emilio Cornago San Pedro made it 3-1 from a free-kick and two minutes later Tobias Terpougoff just missed the target from a good position.

The Stars had a Periera free-kick going wide and, at the other end, Gribbon free-kick’s hit the bar.

Six minutes from time Vukanic scored from an acute angle to seal the issue for Melita.

Vittoriosa: J.M. Vella, B. Bonnici, S. Tellus, M. Barbara, R. Sell, T. Lopes Ferreira (M. Grioli), M. Pereira, L. Scerri, L. Rocha dos Santos, L. Lagana, M. Buttigieg (D. Pace).

Melita: M. Sapiano, J. Vukanic, M.R. Sierra Camacho, G. Gribbon, A. Caruana Scicluna (S. Galea), M. Borg, K. Micallef (M. Galea), J. Galea, E. Cornago San Pedro, L. Micallef, T. Terpougoff (L. Sammut).

Referee: Malcolm Spiteri.

Man of the match: E. Cornago San Pedro (Melita).