After conceding their first league defeat at the hands of neighbours San Ġiljan Sir Alex, Neptunes Emirates picked expected spoils at the expense of th team from across St Julian’s Bay, Exiles Ferretti. They eased away to a 21-7 win.

The Reds will hope this will be a victory which would hopefully open the way for yet another winning groove for the champions whose pride was vented on Saturday.

They were on top throughout against opponents who had neither the knowhow nor the staying power to be competitive, let alone stay with them.

After the Lanzon brothers, Kayne and Niki, opened their teams’ accounts, Exiles, who went for press throughout, took the lead before Neptunes opened a 4-2 advantage that was reduced to one goal before the first session ended.

The Reds’ eight-goal barrage in the second session dismantled Exiles who found no answer to Steve Camilleri and Tamas Molnar’s scoring instincts. Both of them reached four conversions by this time, with Timmy Agius finding the net twice and Michele Stellini, who had to retire for long stretches.

At 12-4 it was game over by the long interval.

Into the third session, Jordan Camilleri was soon out for good after showing dissent towards the referee. Borislav Cupic and Alek-sander Radovic pulled two goals back to make it 12-6, but two more from Steve Camilleri, sandwiching a third from Agius, closed the quarter on 15-6 for Neptunes.

It was now time for more substitutions, especially for Sergey Markoch with Andrea Sammut and Steve Galea Pace taking up duties in the respective goals.

At this point it was a matter of how big the Reds’ victory would be and whether they would reach the 20-goal mark which they did through Steve Camilleri who brought up his tally to eight before Molnar netted his seventh for an emphatic success.

Valletta United’s big victory over Marsaxlokk ASC has pushed them closer to the BOV First Division title as they now need only three points from as many matches to secure the league prize.

Yesterday they were too strong for the southerners, moreso after Marsaxlokk’s chief scorer Robert Kovacs was excluded with sub-stitution at the end of the first session for impeding an opponent from taking a penalty throw.

Valletta’s eventual 4-1 advantage was extended thereafter as the match assumed the proportions of a monologue but for occasional easy-going moments by the City team’s players.

The score at the change of ends was 10-1 and 13-3 at the end of the third quarter.

More substitutions from both teams followed before the com-fortable win was sealed

Marsaxlokk 6
Valletta 17

(1-4, 0-6, 2-3, 3-4)

Marsaxlokk: M. Xerri, L. Friggieri 1, M. Agius, E. Meli 1, K. Grech 1, K. Mock 1, A. Galea, C. Bugeja 1, R. Kovacs, P. Kovacs 1, T. Camilleri, J. Fenech.

Valletta: R. Sciortino, S. Meli, R. Calleja 1, M. Korolija 2, N. Bonello Ghio 3, S. Cachia 2, M. Cordina 1, C. Zammit 1, C. Debono 2, R. Scerri 3, A. Arrigo, D. Filipovic 2, Z. Sciberras.

Refs: M. Angileri, A. De Raffaele.

Exiles 7
Neptunes 21

(3-4, 1-8, 2-3, 1-6)

Exiles: I. Bugeja, J. Rizzo Naudi, S. Vassallo, D. Pace Lupi, N. Portelli, A. Radovic 1, J. Spiteri Staines, B. Cupic 2, K. Grixti, P. Borg 1, S. Gaea Pace, D. Borg 1, C. Lanzon 2.

Neptunes: A. Borg Cole, N. Lanzon 1, A. Sammut, M. Stellini 1, T. Agius 3, A. Ciric, S. Camilleri 8, J. Camilleri, K. Debattista, S. Gravina, B. Lanzon 1, T. Molnar 7, C. Mercieca.

Refs: S. Licari, G. Del Bosco.

Playing today: 6pm Marsascala vs Ta’ Xbiex; 7.15pm Sliema vs San Ġiljan.

Premier League

  P W D L F A Pts
Neptunes 9 8 0 1 146 74 24
San Ġiljan 8 7 0 1 112 96 21
Sliema 8 4 0 4 96 87 12
Sirens 8 2 0 6 73 113 6
Exiles 9 0 0 9 81 138 0

Division One

  P W D L F A Pts
Valletta 9 8 0 1 131 76 24
Marsascala 8 5 0 3 89 88 15
Otters 8 3 2 3 76 89 11
Ta’ Xbiex 8 3 1 4 99 104 10
Marsaxlokk 9 0 1 8 85 123 1

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.