Neptunes proved too strong for Valletta yesterday. Photo: Matthew Mirabelli

Neptunes Emirates and Sliema McDonald’s registered expected victories yesterday. Their victims were Valletta and Sirens Ritter Sport respectively.

The destination of points in the Sliema-Sirens match, the second of the day, was never in question.

The Blues were clearly the better outfit. Their alternating centres of Jerome Gabaretta and John Brownrigg as well as the menace of John Soler, were the recipes of their success.

Sirens, without schemer Charlie Zammit, tried their best but could never match the sharper qualities of their opponents whose ability to unmark themselves gave them an extra push.

Sliema effectively pulled away in the second session, with the Northerners wilting under their opponents weight.

The Blues negotiated the first three quarters evenly, winning each of them by a two-goal margin before they edged through in the fourth.

That final session was a formality as their trio of Gabaretta, Soler and Edward Aquilina topped their team’s scorers’ list with three goals.

The opening match was resolved in favour of the Reds of Balluta Bay who had something in reserve which was not fully exploited due to some glaring shortcomings on the point of execution.

Neptunes started well enough to take a comfortable lead but stalled intermittently as constant rotation of their units by Sergei Markoch had an adverse effect on their scoring momentum.

Although not quite slick, the Reds were in a comfortable posi-tion with their chief striker being Niki Lanzon.

The City team could only limit the damage despite cutting the leeway in the last session with four consecutive goals.

Valletta’s conversions came mainly from four-goal Michael Cordina.

Neptunes’ slogging mood again surfaced in the last quarter but their first and third session-bursts ensured their victory.

However, it had been a slum-bering outing for them.

Summaries

Neptunes 12
Valletta 7

(5-2, 1-0, 5-1, 1-4)

Neptunes: A. Borg Cole, N. Lanzon 4, M. Stellini 1, Z. Mizzi 1, G. Pace 2, K. Debattista, J. Camilleri, M. Lanzon, B. Lanzon 1, T. Agius 2, C. Mercieca 1.

Valletta: B. Sciortino, S. Meli 1, R. Calleja, K. Scicluna, K. Szilagyi 1, S. Cachia 1, R. Mock, J.C. Farrugia, M. Cordina 4, R. Scerri, A. Arrigo.

Referees: P. Giordano, S. Licari.

Sliema 13
Sirens 6

(3-1, 4-2, 3-1, 3-2)

Sliema: R. Coleiro, J. Gabaretta 3, N. Lubrano, T. Sullivan, M. Meli, J. Soler 3, D. Paolella 1, C. Cluett 1, J. Brownrigg 2, E. Aquilina 3; M. Spiteri Staines, E. Meli, D. Abela, M. Agius, A. Mifsud.

Sirens: A. Grech, M. Caruana, J. Napier, P. Micallef, M. Grech, A. Sammut, J. Borg 1, D. Cutajar 1, A. Zarb Cousin, A. Attard 1, S. Micallef, D. Zammit 3, J. Cremona, A. Camenzuli, J. Zampa.

Referees: M. Angileri, P. Balzan.