Pembroke Athleta 2
Laudisi 8, 22 pen;
Hibernians 1
Failla 66 pen;
Pembroke Athleta created the biggest upset so far in the FA Trophy after eliminating Hibernians in a match that produced three red cards last night.
Winston Muscat’s men deserved the victory as they produced a solid performance and fully profited from their opponents’ mistakes to secure their place in the quarter-finals of the competition for the first time in their history.
Hibs, who finished the match with nine men, have only themselves to blame.
They were victims of their own undoing as defensive mistakes, coupled with misconduct from their players, saw them conceding a damaging defeat.
The Paolites found themselves behind after eight minutes when Marcelo Dias miscued his attempted clearance and Ariel Laudisi burst clean through before sliding his shot past home.
Hibs were rattled but they hit back on 14 minutes as Mario Muscat pushed away Clayton Failla’s shot that seemed destined to reach the net.
But Pembroke were the more enterprising side and on 22 minutes they doubled their advantage.
Manolito Micallef forced his way into the box before picking up Gustavo Villalobos whose shot was blocked by the arm of Andrei Agius.
Referee Marco Borg pointed to the spot and dismissed the Hibs defender. This was Agius’s second red card in the space of few days after his sending-off against Mosta last weekend.
From the penalty, Laudisi chipped the ball past Rudy Briffa to give his team a commanding lead.
Hibs tried to fight back but struggled to create any serious threat to the Pembroke goal.
In time added on, however, Muscat was forced to dive full stretch to palm away Juergen Degabriele’s cross-shot.
Pembroke came close to a third goal soon after the restart when in a swift break Laudisi teed up Siraj Arab whose shot was deviated into the path of Kyle O’Brien but his effort was stopped by Briffa.
Hibs were unable to seize the initiative and Nisevic roped in Denni for Jonathan Pearson as he looked to add more firepower to his forward line.
The Brazilian quickly left his mark as on 65 minutes he played in Degabriele who was upended in the box by Patmore Shereni. From the penalty, Failla drilled the ball past former team-mate Muscat.
But Hibs’ hopes were jolted when Dias was shown a straight red card after elbowing Villalobos to leave the Paolites with nine men.
Still the Paolites almost struck two minutes later when Denni found himself in space inside the area but his shot was deflected to a corner by Alex Cini.
Pembroke were also reduced to ten men late on when Barbetti was shown a second yellow card. But Hibs had little energy and time left to avoid the upset.
Pembroke: M. Muscat, M. Attard, A. Cini, O. Bugeja, P. Barbetti, M. Micallef (81 T. Agius), K. O’Brien, S. Arab (Gustavo), A. Laudisi (90 J. Togbah), P. Shereni, G. Villalobos.
Hibernians: R. Briffa, M. Dias, A. Agius, J. Pearson (63 Denni), R. Soares, C. Failla, J. Lima, J. Degabriele (74 J. Mbong), A. Cohen, B. Kristensen, Jorge.
Red cards: Agius (H) 22; Dias (H) 73; Barbetti (P) 84.
Referee: Marco Borg.