Lija Athletic and Mellieħa remained locked at the top of the standings with 42 points each after the two promotion seekers won their respective encounters in the First Division.

Nikolay Filipov scored four goals as Mellieħa beat Sirens 5-2 for the Northerners’ 14th victory of the season.

Lija emulated their rivals’ success after seeing off Attard 7-2.

Nicola del Re helped himself to a hat-trick for Lija with the other goals coming from Zeljko Anicic, Aleksandar Ribic, Floren Manea and Redeemer Borg.

Third-placed Naxxar Lions staved off the challenge posed by mid-table Msida St Joseph to chalk up three important points after a 5-3 victory in a thrilling match.

Goals from Andrea Farrugia, Adrian Fenech, Daniel Brincat, Sean Vella and Paul Bugeja helped the Lions to consolidate their placing in the table. Msida’s scorers were Marian Gologan, Alexander Kristonijevic and Ryan Xuereb.

In another match, Marco Mercieca hit the target three times as Luqa beat Siġġiewi 3-2 to return to winning ways after five consecutive defeats.

Mdina Knights continued with their good form of late as they overcame the stiff opposition of Qrendi 6-2.

Birżebbuġa St Peter’s registered their first win in the league as doubles from Peter Mark Cachia, Eric Saliba and Noel Tabone enabled them to beat Mqabba 6-5.

Birżebbuġa, still bottom of the table, produced a remarkable comeback after being 4-2 down before the break.

Mqabba had a good chance to score an equaliser late on but Birżebbuġa keeper Jean Paul Mercieca saved a penalty.

Standings
Lija, Mellieħa 42; Naxxar 32; Attard 24; Luqa, Msida 21; Mdina 19; Sirens 14; Mqabba, Siġġiewi 12; Qrendi 11; Birżebbuġa 4.