Andrè Schembri’s Boavista went down 2-1 at Pacos de Ferreira in a Portuguese Primeira Liga game on Monday night.

The Malta forward played the whole match but was unable to prevent a second consecutive defeat for Boavista who paid the price for their dismal opening to the game.

Goals from Marco Baixinho and Welthon gave Pacos de Ferreira a 2-0 lead inside the opening 27 minutes.

The dismissal of Miguel Vieira for two yellow cards 10 minutes into the second half appeared to have revived Boavista’s hopes but they failed to score an equaliser after Renato Santos had narrowed the deficit from a penalty.

The defeat left Boavista in the bottom half of the standings, level with Pacos de Ferreira and Vitoria de Setubal on 13 points.

Sam Magri’s Dover Athletic lost their direct clash with promotion play-off rivals and fourth-placed Dagenham and Redbridge 2-1 at their Crable Athletic Ground last weekend.

The Malta defender played the full 90 minutes as Dover failed to recover after conceding two first-half goals. Ricky Miller’s strike came too late for Dover to make a comeback.

Dover Athletic remain sixth in the league standings on 43 points, just one behind Barrow who occupy the last promotion play-off spot.

Zach Muscat, who has just recovered from injury, was an unused substitute as Arezzo bagged a 3-1 win over Lupa Roma in the Italian Lega Pro Group A.

Arezzo are now third in the standings, level with Livorno on 29 points but 13 adrift of leaders Alessandria.

Arezzo travel to bottom-placed Prato for another championship match tonight.

Barnet, who have Malta winger Luke Gambin on their books, were not in action last weekend as the League Two championship made way for the FA Cup second-round matches.