Ħamrun Spartans 1
Grima 88 pen;
Tarxien Rainbows 1
Bueno 36;
The few fans who braved the inclement weather in the hope of an evening of fine football at Ta’ Qali were to be sadly disappointed. Instead, they had to endure a drab encounter with little excitement.
Yet, at the end of the match, both coaches must have been satisfied with the sharing of the spoils.
The result will be a welcome glimmer of hope for new Tarxien coach Clive Mizzi who halted his side’s barren run of two consecutive defeats to chalk up the first point on the board as Ħamrun’s Stefan Sultana stayed unbeaten with three drawn results to show.
Spartans veteran David Camilleri came in for the suspended Roderick Fenech while Anton Vergilov was preferred to his Bulgarian compatriot Nikolay Bozhov as Ryan Spiteri replaced Terence Scerri whose season is over with knee trouble.
Sultana opted for a 4-3-2-1 formation with Terence Vella leading the forward line, Spiteri and Gianluca Calabretta deployed on the wings and Lyubomir Vitanov, Camilleri and Daniel Zerafa pulling the strings in midfield.
Mizzi opted for a remodelled 4-3-3 formation with former Sliema and Valletta midfielder Roderick Bajada claiming a starting place as Daniel Mariano Bueno was employed at the tip of a three-pronged attack with newcomer Andre Esposito and Karl Pulo pushing up the wings.
With this new tactical configuration, Mizzi sought to exploit the speed of Justin Grioli and Carlo Mamo to open up the Reds’ defence, allowing the two full-backs to push on extremely high up the pitch.
Thus, Tarxien had the Spartans on the backfoot from the outset but they had to wait until the 24th minute to fashion their first scoring opportunity.
Grioli broke clear on the right before delivering a perfect ball at the far post where Bueno scuffed his volley over the bar. Three minutes later, Massimo Grima got a vital touch to Esposito’s close range shot to turn it wide.
The Rainbows didn’t have to wait long to put their noses in front.
On 36 minutes, Esposito was fouled just out the area. From the free-kick, taken by Evaldo, the ball hit the crossbar and Bueno headed in the rebound to break the deadlock.
The Spartans were reduced to chasing shadows in that opening period and Sultana effected a double substitution at half-time with Spiteri and Vergilov making way for Bozhov and Richard Brightwell, another newcomer.
But the moment referee Clayton Pisani signalled the restart, torrential rain swept across the stadium drenching the players for most of the second half.
The slippery surface and difficult conditions did not help matters as Ħamrun tried to desperately hard to equalise.
But their evening looked to have taken a turn for the worse when, on 56 minutes, goalkeeper Andrea Cassar rushed out of his box in a bid to clear danger as Esposito broke through only to handle the ball and get red-carded by the referee.
Anthony Curmi, Ħamrun’s reserve goalkeeper, came on for Camilleri to fill Cassar’s void.
Ħamrun thought they had levelled matters on 73 minutes when Mamo back-headed erratically in his bid to clear an Angel Yoshev free-kick. However, with the ball destined to reach the back of the net Rainbows keeper David Cassar pulled off a remarkable elastic save to deny the Spartans.
The Rainbows were unable to impose their numerical superiority and three minutes from time they conceded the equaliser.
Fastening on to an inviting ball from midfield, Vitanov veered to his left to evade Brazilian defender Evaldo only to be brought down in the box.
Grima made no mistake from the resultant penalty for the battling Reds to draw level.
Cassar transfer
Ħamrun are reportedly on the verge of signing Christian Cassar after talks seem to have reached a conclusion yesterday.
Last week, Cassar became a free agent after his contract at former club Floriana was rescinded by mutual agreement.
At present, Cassar is in his final stage of rehabilitation from a knee surgery.
If the deal goes through, he won’t be able to make his first showing for the Spartans until late next month.
Ħamrun Spartans
A. Cassar, G. Calabretta-6, D. Camilleri-5 (57 A. Curmi-6), M. Grima-6.5, R. Spiteri-5 (46 Brightwell-6), T. Vella-5, D. Zerafa-6, A. Ivanov-6, A. Yoshev-6, L. Vitanov-6.5, A. Vergilov-4 (46 N. Bozhov-6).
Tarxien Rainbows
D. Cassar-7, C. Mamo-6, Evaldo-6, R. Bajada-6, A. Esposito-6, K. Pulo-5.5 (82 J. Shead), D.M. Bueno-6.5, O. Anonam-7, L.R. De Castro (14 M. Caruana-6), J. Grioli-6, M. Tanti-5 (89 A. Agius).
Referee: Clayton Pisani.
Yellow cards: Grioli, Vergilov, Calabretta, Caruana.
Red card: Cassar (ĦS) 56.
BOV Player of the match: Daniel Mariano Bueno (Tarxien Rainbows).