Msida St Joseph 0
Rabat Ajax 1

A goal inside the opening three minutes of the match was enough for Rabat Ajax to edge Msida St Joseph and pick their second successive league victory.

It was a deserved victory for the Magpies who were the better side throughout and with this win they have now moved away from the relegation zone and are occupying a mid-table position.

Rabat were off to a flier as after three minutes they took the lead. Aidan Azzopardi connected to a Lawrence Chiedozie cross and directed a header into the Msida net.

On 26 minutes, Chiedozie came close but his header was pushed away by goalkeeper Kurt Rizzo and a minute later the Nigerian just missed the target from just inside the area.

Four minutes before the break, Joey Falzon’s side should have made it 2-0 when Joseph Caruana found Smeir who released Aidan Azzo-pardi but his lob finished over.

Rabat kept pushing forward on the restart and on 50 minutes Wayne Borg moved past two defenders but his angled drive was saved by Rizzo.

Msida continued to struggle to create scoring chances.

In fact it was Rabat again who threatened on 74 minutes when Borg hit a firm drive which forced a good save by Rizzo.

On 83 minutes, Msida suffered another setback when Stacy Vella received a second booking for dissent.

With a man more on the pitch, Rabat controlled proceedings and could have further increased their lead two minutes from time when Chiedozie rounded Rizzo but failed to put the ball into an empty net.

Msida: K. Rizzo, M. Borda, R. Forace (D. Cachia), D. Attard, S. Schembri, L. Cassar, S. Vella, U. Anywanna (C. Saliba), I. Chircop, G. Murakami, Z. Vukovic.

Rabat: J. Azzopardi, S. Gauci, W. Borg (C. Vella), J. Caruana, N. Caruana, A. Smeir, D. Falzon, L. Chiedozie, E. Scicluna, D. Azzopardi, A. Azzopardi.

Referee: Fyodor Zammit.

Man of the match: Aidan Azzopardi (Rabat Ajax).