Guillermo Molina and Boris Vapenski produced a class act to help San Giljan Crystal Finance to yet another victory over Sliema Frank Salt Real Estate and, as a consequence, put their team closer to the championship title.

Beyond the Saints’ collective motivation and team-work yesterday, the two foreigners earned the plaudits when sharing 11 of the 17 goals their team netted.

Whatever Sliema’s desire was, an element which ebbed and flowed throughout the proceedings, they could never match their opponents’ killer instincts even if their pride was at stake.

Apart from an opening goal, the Saints led all the way. However, every time Sliema cut the leeway their momentum deserted them.

The Blues were without their centre Jerome Gabarretta while Michael Bodegas was rarely in the picture apart from a solitary goal.

San Giljan, who raised their game by several notches following a scraping 7-5 victory over Valletta McDonalds in the knock-out semi-final last weekend, were always able to rely on the steam provided by their foreigners and sustained by a solid rearguard in front of the reliable Joseph Sammut in goal.

Their 4-2 first-session lead was increased to 7-4 only for Sliema to draw level on 7-7 at the half-way mark. But San Giljan had fuel reserves in their tank and two identical 5-3 scorelines in the last quarters sealed a deserved victory.

Indeed, Molina and Vapenski kept the team’s tails up and their noses in front.

Exiles’ comeback

In a Relegation Pool match which mostly counted for prestige and statistics, Exiles Ferretti had the satisfaction of pulling off a surprise 12-11 victory over the more-quoted Sirens Ritter Sport.

Undoubtedly, the match will be remembered for Marco Cuk’s massive contribution for his team when netting ten of the 12 goals for Exiles with his final conversion coming on the cusp of time.

Exiles had shown their fighting qualities when recovering from 10-6 down with two minutes left in the third session and then win the final quarter 4-1.

Bottom-placed Exiles still have an outside chance of dodging the last place when they meet Valletta in their last match.

San Giljan 17
Sliema 13

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

San Giljan: J. Sammut, P. Borg 1, A. Galea, P. Vapenski 5, G. Molina 6, M. Zammit 2, K. Galea 1, Darren Zammit, B. Plumpton, A. Cousin 1, P. Fava, Dino Zammit 1, D. Spiteri.

Sliema: R. Coleiro, N. Bugelli, K. Dowling 1, T. Sullivan, M. Meli, J. Soler 2, M. Spiteri Staines, C. Cluett 3, J. Brownrigg 1, M. Bodegas 1, N. Dedovic 5.

Referees: M. Dalli, A. Severo.

Sirens 11
Exiles 12

(2-2, 3-2, 5-4, 1-4)

Sirens: N. Grixti, Z. Mizzi 1, C. Presciutti 4, G. Pace, M. Grech 1, C. Kiss 2, M. Caruana, D. Cutajar 1, J. Napier, E. Aquilina 2, L. Caruana, A. Sammut, M. Muscat.

Exiles: I. Bugeja, J. Rizzo Naudi, S. Vassallo, D. Pace Lupi, R. Blary, J. Spiteri Staines 1, J. Bajada, K. Grixti, S. Galea Pace, A. Bianchi 1, M. Cuk 10, T. Paris, K. Lanzon.

Referees: M. Angileri, T. Pagani.

Premier Division