With San Ġiljan Giuseppe’s opening their account when brushing aside Ta’ Xbiex Amigos, the winning trend of the fancied teams continued with victories for Exiles Ferretti and Neptunes Emirates over Otters Nivea and Sirens Ritter Sport respectively yesterday.
In the opening match, San Ġiljan, using all players available, had it all their way against opponents who had all but been thrashed three days earlier by Otters.
The bulk of San Ġiljan’s goals came from Nikola Sutic, who netted no fewer than 10 goals, and Karl Galea, scorer of six.
Exiles had to somewhat dig deep to finally shrug off a workmanlike Otters Nivea in the second match.
Marton Toth helped himself to four goals.
Otters, who had George Zammit and Duncan Schembri fouled out, kept fighting and were by no means humbled despite the scoreline. The usual Zoltan Radocz was Otters’ chief scorer with five goals.
The last match of the day between Neptunes and Sirens was billed as the main attraction.
However, it turned out to be a one-sided encounter during which the Reds underlined their superiority by large swathes of impressive play in the middle sessions.
The northerners, guilty of several missed chances on man-ups, scoring two on seven, could only bank on generosity particularly when the Reds opted to use their tailenders.
The result had been procured by the middle session when the Reds led 12-6, later stretched to 16-6.
Summaries
Ta’ Xbiex 9
San Ġiljan 24
(2-7, 0-7, 3-4, 4-6)
Ta’ Xbiex: L. Borg, J. Cremona, S. Botond 2, A. Galea 2, C. Bugeja, A. Bugeja 1, K. Falzon, N. Bonello Ghio, J. Tabone, S. Galea 2, J. Selesz 2.
San Ġiljan: D. Camilleri, J.C. Cutajar, N. Sutic 10, K. Galea 6, B. Plumpton, R. Mock, B. Letica 3, A. Bianchi, K. Mock, C. Gialanze 1, P. Fava 1, D. Abela, M. Pisani 3.
Refs: R. Spiteri, S. Licari.
Exiles 17
Otters 10
(5-3, 4-2, 3-3, 5-2)
Exiles: A. Borg Cole, J. Rizzo Naudi 2, N. Paris, D. Pace Lupi 1, T. Sullivan 2, S. Vassallo 1, J. Spiteri Staines, K. Grixti, D. Borg, P. Borg 2, A. Kunac 2, M. Toth 4, K. Lanzon 3.
Otters: A. Cachia, G. Attard, G. Zammit, Z. Radocz 5, S. Dimech 1, N. Balatoni 2, J. Paris 1, D. Schembri 1, K. Scicluna, K. Debattista, C. Martin, A. Cachia, K. Grima Scott.
Refs: P. Giordano, A. De Raffaele.
Neptunes 17
Sirens 12
(5-3, 7-3, 4-1, 1-5)
Neptunes: I. Bugeja, N. Lanzon 2, E. Aquilina 1, M. Stellini 2, Z. Mizzi 1, A. Ciric 1, S. Camilleri 5, J. Camilleri 1, B. Lanzon, S. Gravina 1, R. Sciortino, T. Molnar 3, C. Mercieca.
Sirens: A. Grech, A. Attard 3, A. Sammut, P. Micallef, A. Babay 1, S. Kiss 1, J. Borg 1, D. Cutajar 1, A. Zarb Cousin 1, C. Zammit, C. Spiteri de Barro 1, D. Zammit 3, N. Grixti.
Refs: A. De Raffaele, M. Angileri.
Group A standings
| P | W | D | L | F | A | Pts | |
| San Ġiljan | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 24 | 9 | 3 |
| Sliema | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 11 | 4 | 3 |
| Exiles | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 21 | 21 | 3 |
| Otters | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 28 | 27 | 3 |
| Ta’ Xbiex | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 19 | 42 | 0 |
Group B standings
| P | W | D | L | F | A | Pts | |
| Neptunes | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 36 | 19 | 6 |
| Sirens | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 25 | 25 | 3 |
| Valletta | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 8 | 13 | 0 |
| Marsascala | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 7 | 19 | 0 |
Next fixtures
Wednesday: 5.30 p.m. Valletta vs Marsascala; 6.45 p.m. San Ġiljan vs Exiles; 8 p.m. Otters vs Sliema.