Gudja United 2
Msida St Joseph 1

Gudja bounced back from their upset to Pembroke to beat relegation-troubled Msida 2-1 and maintain their promotion charge.

Msida were under the guidance of assistant coach Abel Munoz Martin yesterday following the departure of Saviour Debono Grech.

Gudja did not have to wait long to open the scoring. On five minutes Angelo Catania was sent tumbling in the box and a penalty was given. Mauro Brincat drilled the ball home from the spot.

Gudja stayed in control. They made it 2-0 on the half-hour mark when the ball reached George Chircop who exchanged passes with Adrian Carabott before placing his shot beyond Kurt Rizzo’s reach.

However, just before half-time the Saints got back into the match when captain Dino Cachia curled his shot home from the edge of the Gudja penalty area.

Msida missed a golden opportunity to draw level on 49 minutes when Faria found Kevin Borg unmarked but Matthew Xerxen saved his close-range effort.

However, the Saints suffered a setback when Rizzo was dismissed for a foul on Caruana who was heading for goal.

Despite being down to 10 men, Msida should have drawn level but Uchenna Anyanwu was denied by Xerxen and Faria blasted wide from the rebound.

Msida never gave up as Gudja had to dig deep to contain their opponents’ pressure.

Then, with 10 minutes to go, Chircop received a second yellow card as Gudja also finished with 10 men.

They held tight and late on Xerxen tipped away for a corner a Vukovic lob which seemed destined to hit the back of net.

At the final whistle, police had to intervene to restore order as, according to the match report, an Msida St Joseph official tried to assault two Gudja players.

Gudja: M. Xerxen, G. Sammut (C. Grech), C. Farrugia, C. Giordimaina, E. Micheletti Awoh, S. Fall, M. Brincat, G. Chircop, A. Carabott, U. Nwoko, A. Catania (G. Di Mare).

Msida: K. Rizzo, R. Forace (S. Schembri, L. Micallef), I. Chircop, G. Vella, R. Faria, D. Cachia, D. Attard, K. Borg (M. Camilleri), Z. Vukovic, U. Anyanwu, L. Cassar.

Referee: Stefan Pace.

Man of the match: Ricardinho Faria (Msida St Joseph).

Standings