After their disastrous outing against Neptunes Emirates last Wednesday, Sliema Frank Salt Real Estate made amends for their disappointing start to the leage campaign when they beat Exiles Ferretti 14-9.

Given this situation, the Blues were in better shape despite some evident flaws which are still afflicting them. At least centre Jerome Gabaretta and John Soler found their scoring touch.

It had been largely balanced until almost midway through but three goals in succession, late in the third session, gave Sliema a breather. They kept up their momentum in the fourth quarter to make sure of their first points of the season.

Exiles, on their part, are still looking for their first spoils of their championship campaign.

The Blues were soon in front but Exiles scored a momentary equ-aliser before three goals in suc-cession made it 4-1, only for Romain Blary to net his first of four goals for a 4-2 opening session lead.

In the second session, Kayne Lanzon broke to cut the leeway further. Play was quite balance at this point, with Exiles guilty of some misplaced passes on breakaways.

Goals alternated a 7-5 scoreline towards the end of the quarter but then the Blues pulled away further to make it 9-5 just before the third session started.

After Blary reached his hat-trick to make it 9-6, Sliema opened the throttle to take a 13-6 advantage when they scored four times on the spin, through Soler, Sullivan, Mark Meli and Gabaretta.

With victory in sight, the Blues tried to go for more. However, they fluffed more extra-man sets, allowing their opponents to score three more and make 13-9, before Soler sealed the issue on a five-goal victory margin.

Meanwhile, yesterday’s match was the last for Sergio Afric as Sliema coach.

The Times of Malta has learnt that the Croatian met with the club committee earlier this week and handed in his resignation but accepted to take charge of the team for the last time yesterday.

Afric had been at the helm of the Blues since September 2008 when he took over from Igor Gocanin who had led the team to a league and cup double in that same summer.

The following year, Afric, the former Malta coach, led Sliema to a league and cup double.

However, after that the Blues did not succeed to break the domi-nance of rivals Neptunes who won the championship for three successive years.

In the opening match, the derby of the south between Marsascala Mor€ and Marsaxlokk ASC turned out to be a close affair with only one goal dividing the teams until three minutes from the end, before Marsascala took the spoils 12-9.

Marsaxlokk battled bravely and would point a figure to their failure to convert a couple of crucial man-ups which prevented them from saving the match.

Goals alternated in the first session until a brace from Marsa-scala through Joseph Kayes, who eventually scored four goals, and Jono Ross, put them 3-2 infront.

The scoreline was on a par in the second quarter which ended 3-3, with Pierre Borg’s team going two goals in front before Marsa-xlokk reduced the gap to 6-5.

The contest was still balanced with three goals netted at each ended which left Marsascala 9-8 in front before the start of the final quarter.

The match was resolved in Marsascala’s favour after winning the last session 3-1.

Marsascala 12
Marsaxlokk 9
(3-2, 3-3, 3-3, 3-1)

Marsascala: K. Schembri, K. Rizzo Naudi 1, M. Pace, B. Muscat, J. Kayes 4, L. Grixti 2, J. Cremona 2, J. Ross 2, A. Sammut 1, D. Cassar, C. Mifsud, L. Caruana.

Marsaxlokk: A. Xuereb, A. Bajada, M. Agius 1, E. Meli 1, K.Grech 2, A. Galea 1, C. Bugeja 1, R. Kovacs 1, P. Kovacs 2, M. Grima, T. Camilleri, G. Zammit.

Refs: M. Angileri, A. De Raffaele.

Sliema 14
Exiles 9
(4-2, 5-3, 4-1, 1-3)

Sliema: R. Coleiro, J. Gabaretta 3, N. Lubrano 1, T. Sullivan 2, M. Meli 1, J. Soler 2, G. Kiss 2, C. Cluett, J. Brownrigg, I. Barac 2, D.Paolella, M. Spiteri Staines 1, D. Abela.

Exiles; I. Bugeja, N. Paris, M. Magri, D. Pace Lupi, R. Blary 4, N. Portelli, J. Spiteri Staines, V. Cupic 3, K. Grixti 1, P. Borg, S. Galea Pace, D. Borg, K. Lanzon 1.

Refs: M. Dalli, M. Calabrò.

Playing Today: 4.45pm Ta’ Xbiex vs ASA U-17; 6pm Otters vs Valletta; 7.15pm Sirens vs Neptunes.

Sliema notched their first league win of the season after they beat Exiles.  Photo: Chris Sant Fournier

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