Malta 3
England 10

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

The Maltese national team suffered their first defeat at the Commonwealth Championships after they were comprehensively beaten 10-3 by England, in Aberdeen, yesterday.

The upset in this last round-robin phase outing had little bearing on the line-up for today’s medal matches, however, as Karl Izzo’s men had already been assured of their place in the final against the same England team.

Malta placed second in the classification with 10 points, two adrift of England who had a perfect re-cord from six matches.

Yesterday, England dominated the opening two sessions, hitting three goals in each quarter to change ends 6-0 ahead as the Maltese, probably with one eye on the final, looked distracted and struggled to contend with their opponents’ tight marking.

For England, goalkeeper Ed Scott also effected a string of excellent saves.

The Maltese broke their duck after the break with a Matthew Zammit goal but they suffered a blow when Jordan Camilleri was red carded midway through the third session.

The English team went on to add two more goals to start the final quarter 8-1 in front.

In the final session, with both teams making use of their fringe players, Alex Attard made it 8-2 but England added two more goals before Dino Zammit netted Malta’s third with five seconds to go.

In the end, England ran out comfortable winners but expect Malta to be a different proposition in this evening’s final.

Meanwhile, Scotland and South Africa will contest the play-off for third place today.

The Scots assured themselves of facing the third-placed South Africans after they had the better of Wales 6-5.

Malta scorers: M. Zammit, A. Attard, D. Zammit.