Lija Athletic and Mellieħa continued with their march at the top of the First Division standings after seeing off Msida St Joseph and Naxxar Lions respectively to maintain their promotion charge and gear up for next week’s head-to-head clash.

Lija beat Msida 8-3 with Aleksandar Ribic, Floren Manea and Jeremy Cutajar all hitting the target twice. Zeljko Anicic and Larkin Saffrett were also on the scoresheet for the winners.

Mellieħa kept up the pace with Lija following a 3-1 win over Naxxar in a thrilling encounter.

The Lions produced a spirited performance but on the day the north seasiders proved stronger.

Radoslav Kovachev (2) and Nikolay Filipov scored for Mellieħa as Naxxar only had a Christian Wismayer goal to show in the end.

Both promotion-seekers are joint top of the table with 45 points. Naxxar are a distant third on 32, five points ahead of Attard who beat the in-form Mdina Knights 6-5 in their last match.

Antonio Camilleri scored twice for Attard and the other goals came from Byron Fenech, Gerry Fabbro, Adrian Lee and an own goal as they had the better of Mdina who proved a hard nut to crack on the night.

Luqa came from behind to beat Qrendi 4-3 for their eighth victory of the season as Mqabba returned to winning ways after seeing off Siġġiewi 3-2.

In another match, Jason Camilleri scored a dramatic goal 27 seconds from time to salvage a point for Sirens against bottom-placed Birżebbuġa.

The game, which finished 3-3, kept those present on the edge of their seats as Andrea Cutajar, Justin Camilleri and Noel Tabone put the southenders in the driving seat.

However, Sirens hit back to level the matters through a hat-trick by Jason Camilleri.

Standings
Lija, Mellieħa 45; Naxxar 32; Attard 27; Luqa 24; Msida 21; Mdina 19; Sirens, Mqabba 15; Siġġiewi 12; Qrendi 11; Birżebbuġa 5.