If San Ġiljan Crystal Finance can maintain their levels of determination and killer instinct shown yesterday against Sliema Frank Salt they could see their dream of landing the championship after 20 years come through.

Led chiefly by their Spanish star Guillermo Molina and Aurelien Cousin, scorers of seven goals between them, they beat the Blues 11-10 to keep a clean slate and maintain their top spot in the table.

After a balanced opening session the Saints sent their opponents reeling when they built a four-goal lead on 8-4 midway through. That advantage was stretched by another goal when Matthew Zammit netted his second a minute into the last quarter.

By that time both teams had alternated sketchy patches of missed man-up sets with the Blues being the chief culprits when they once squandered a double-man advantage after they had staged a gutsy comeback to reduce their deficit to 9-8 early in that last session.

Their four on ten rate did not help their cause, with the Saints going one better when they scored five from as many sets.

However, in those remaining minutes, Marko Orlovic’s boys had some reserves in their tank as Cousin and the returning Peter Borg scored twice either side of John Soler’s strike to make it 11-9 before Michael Bodegas clipped his team’s deficit to just one goal late on.

It had been another battle royal which have had both sets of supporters’ hearts in their mouths.

Sirens Ritter Sport were at last rewarded with their first win of the season when they beat Exiles Ferretti by a six-goal margin in a game that produced 20 goals.

The northerners always conducted the scoreline against a fighting Exiles side who kept within two goals of their opponents until early in the last session.

Eventually they gave up their ghost when conceding the initiative to Sirens for whom Christian Presciutti scored a hat-trick.

Marko Cuk’s poker of goals was not enough for pointless Exiles.

Summaries

Otters 10
Marsaxlokk 19

(3-5, 1-5, 3-5, 3-4)

Otters: R. Bonnici, M. Borg Millo, M. Paris, L. Gialanze, F. Kljajevic 2, E. Meli, G. Mizzi, S. Dimech 1, N. Paris 4, D. Borg Millo, C. Martin, S. Aksentejevic 3, P. Teuma.

Marsaxlokk: A. Xuereb, C. Spiteri De Barro 1, M. Korolija 5, A. Galea, C. Gialanze 1, C. Bugeja 1, N. Portelli 3, I. Vuksanovic 6, A. Zarb Cousin 2, R. Scerri, M. Lanzon, J. Xerri de Caro, J. Cremona.

Referees: R. Spiteri, M. Sponza.

San Ġiljan 11
Sliema 10

(4-3, 4-1, 1-3, 2-3)

San Ġiljan: J. Sammut, P. Borg 1, A. Galea, B. Vapenski 1, G. Molina 4, M. Zammit 2, K. Galea, Darren Zammit, B. Plumpton, A. Cousin 3, P. Fava, Dino Zammit, D. Spiteri.

Sliema: R. Coleiro, J. Gabarretta 1, K. Dowling, N. Bugelli, M. Meli 2, J. Soler 1, M. Spiteri Staines, C. Cluett, J. Brownrigg, M. Bodegas 3, A. Attard 1, N. Dedovic 2, Z. Sciberras.

Referees: M. Angileri and A. Pascucci.

Exiles 7
Sirens 13

(1-3, 3-2, 2-3, 1-5)

Exiles: I. Bugeja, J. Rizzo Naudi, S. Vassallo, D. Pace Lupi, R. Blary 1, J. Spiteri Staines, S. Gravina 2, K. Grixti, D. Abela, A. Bianchi, M. Cuk 4, L. Peric, K. Lanzon.

Sirens: N. Grixti, Z. Mizzi 2, C. Presciutti 3, G. Pace, M. Grech 1, C. Kiss 2, M. Caruana, D. Cutajar 1, J. Napier, E. Aquilina 2, L. Caruana 2, A. Sammut, J. Sciberras.

Referees: P. Balzan, M. Sponza.

Premier League

  P W D L F A Pts
San Giljan 5 5 0 0 57 38 15
Neptunes 5 4 0 1 58 37 12
Sliema 5 2 1 2 59 48 7
Valletta 5 2 0 3 47 66 6
Sirens 5 1 1 3 51 50 4
Exiles 5 0 0 5 38 70 0

Division One

  P W D L F A Pts
Ta’ Xbiex 5 4 0 1 68 57 12
Marsaxlokk 5 3 0 2 76 55 9
Marsascala 5 3 0 2 67 59 9
Otters 5 0 0 5 45 85 0

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