A charged-up San Ġiljan Crystal Finance kept up their title momentum yesterday when they scored the third win over Sliema Frank Salt Real Estate in the championship trek to extend their lead at the top of the BOV Premier League standings to five points, with second-placed Neptunes Grimaldi having a game in hand.

It may not have been a decisive victory in terms of the scoreline, but the Saints were a notch above their opponents who failed to keep their motivation levels on stable lines, particularly early in the game.

As a consequence they drifted to a five-goal deficit in the third session after the teams changed ends with San Ġiljan 7-4 ahead. By then Sliema had wasted a posse of extra player sets to end up with two goals on 11, plus a missed penalty.

The Saints were a little less wasteful in this regard, having netted two on six but also tossing away a penalty throw.

Boris Vapenski was their main scorer with four goals, with Alex Attard topping the Sliema strikers’ list with a hat-trick.

At one moment in the last session, after the Saints had led 10-6 into that final quarter, the Blues reduced the deficit to just two lengths on 9-11.

However, Andrea Galea’s second goal and Guillermo Molina’s only conversion of the evening put the Saints’ minds at rest.

Sliema’s last goals from Nikola Dedovic and Jerome Gabarretta came too late to raise any hopes for Dejan Milakovic’s team.

In the opening match of the evening, valid for the Relegation Pool, Sirens Ritter Sport had little difficulty in beating bottom-placed Exiles Ferretti who only had a first-session 1-0 lead to show for their efforts.

Otherwise, Bogdan Rath’s side took over in the middle sessions both of which they won 4-1 to extend their advantage to 8-3 into the last quarter.

That lead was further increased when they won the last session 3-2 for a final 11-5 scoreline.

Christian Presciutti netted four goals for the winners while Marco Cuk obtained a hat-trick for Exiles.

Summaries

Exiles 5
Sirens 11

(1-0, 1-4, 1-4, 2-3)

Exiles Ferretti: I. Bugeja, J. Rizzo Naudi, S. Vassallo, D. Pace Lupi, R. Blary 1, J. Spiteri Staines, S. Gravina, K. Grixti, S. Galea Pace, A. Bianchi 1, M. Cuk 3, P. Paris, K. Lanzon.

Sirens Ritter Sport: N. Grixti, Z. Mizzi, C. Presciutti 4, G. Pace, M. Grech, C. Kiss 2, M. Caruana, D. Cutajar 1, J. Napier 1, E. Aqui-lina 1, L. Caruana 2, A. Sammut, J. Sciberras.

Referees: R. Spiteri, D. McKerr.

Sliema 11
San Ġiljan 13

(2-4, 2-3, 2-3, 5-3)

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

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

Referees: M. Dalli, S. O’Brien.

Premier League

Division One