Improving Sirens sink Saints

The upward performance graph was maintained by Sirens Ritter Sport, with yesterday’s 15-12 victory over San Ġiljan Giuseppe’s confirming their improvement.

This was a solid performance by Marco Risso’s team despite their thin bench. The left-hander Hungarian Csaba Kiss, helped by an unyielding rearguard, spearheaded the northerners who had Alex Attard back in the team.

By contrast, San Ġiljan had a poor match with unconvincing man-up statistics (six on 15 against two on five for their opponents). Darko Griguljan was marked by Kiss and he could only score twice besides missing a penalty.

After going in arrears Sirens took over and at one point led 4-1 in the opening session before the Saints clipped the gap to 4-3.

San Ġiljan fought back to level matters twice in the next session. Kiss was having a purple patch and his soon reached his hat-trick with two late goals in the second session to make it 8-6.

The advantage was increased to 13-10 by the end of the third session during which Kiss reached his poker and Griguljan finally breaking his duck.

Attard was fouled out but the Saints’ wastefulness gathered momentum as Sirens made it 15-10 before San Ġiljan cut the leeway to 15-12 late on.

It was a deserved victory for Marco Risso’s team.

The 2012 league season got off to a start with Marsascala More€ defeating Ta’ Xbiex Amigos 15-9 in a First Division match.

An identical scoreline of 4-2 in the southerners’ favour paved way for a deserved victory as Pierre Borg’s outfit possessed better resources despite their wastefulness on man-up set play.

They were certainly well served by their foreigners, Gabor Hedegus and Joseph Kayes, who scored ten goals between them.

Marsascala 15
Ta’ Xbiex 9
(4-2, 4-2, 5-2, 2-3)

Marsascala: K. Schembri, G. Hedegus 4, M. Pace, B. Muscat, J. Kayes 6, L. Grixti 2, J. Licari 1, J. Cremona, S. Micallef 1, R. Scerri, D. Cassar 1, K. Navarro, C. Mifsud.

Ta’ Xbiex: L. Borg, J. Cremona, A. Galea, J. Tabone, L. Suranyi 5, C. Bugeja, S. Galea, M. Asciak, S. Cini, C. Saliba, R. Attard 1, A. Zammit 1, Y. Szeles 2.

Refs: M. Angileri, R. Spiteri.

San Ġiljan 12
Sirens 15
(3-4, 3-4, 4-5, 2-2)

San Ġiljan: D. Camilleri, J.C. Cutajar. D. Griguljan 2, K. Galea 2, K. Dowling, M. Zammit 3, B. Letica 1, A. Bianchi 1, R. Mock, C. Gialanze 3, P. Fava, D. Abela, M. Pisani.

Sirens: A. Grech, A. Attard 2, L. Caruana, P. Micallef, A. Babay 1, C. Kiss 4, J. Borg, D. Cutajar 2, A. Zarb Cousin 1, C. Zammit, C. Spiteri de Barro 2, D. Zammit 3, A. Sammut.

Refs: P. Balzan, R. Colombo.

Playing today
18.00 Otters vs Valletta; 19.15 Sliema vs Exiles.