Floriana Young Stars 2
Lightshop Hotsticks 4

Barely had the teams settled down when Hotsticks opened a 2-0 lead following goals from Steve Portelli and Jonathan Borg.

Young Stars were stunned and for a few minutes their defence suffered sustained Hotsticks’ pressure.

However, on 16 minutes, the Floriana outfit were awarded a penalty corner and Mark Camilleri netted to halve the deficit to 2-1.

Game on – tight-marking dominated thereafter for the rest of the half with both teams avoiding midfield and trying to use the direct route to goal with lofted balls or long passes from defensive positions into the opponents D.

The scores remained unaltered but four minutes into the second half Camilleri scored his second as a result of a penalty corner action to draw the sides level at two-all.

On 47 minutes, after a period of Hotsticks pressure, Portelli was again on the mark to send the Hotsticks into the lead and three minutes later he completed his hat-trick for his team to re-open a two-goal lead.

Young Stars held most of the possession but did not take advantage of six penalty corner awards, also missing a couple of goal-scoring opportunities.

Hotsticks by then were content to play out time, using counter attacks as their tactical weapon to preserve their advantage and make sure they take sole leadership in the standings.

Umpires: David Agius, Raymond Micallef.

Laferla White Hart 2
Rabat Depiro 2

White Hart finally chalked up their first point in the championship following a 2-2 draw with Rabat.

Harry Hayes netted early on to send White Hart into the lead but just as it seemed that they would hold on to their slim one-goal advantage until the break, Shawn Dimech equalised.

Just before the whistle sounded Kurt Darmanin gave Rabat a 2-1 advantage at the break.

Rabat spent most of the early exchanges in the second half on the attack. But White Hart were giving their all and on 60 minutes Charlot Sammut levelled matters at 2-2.

The final ten minutes were frenetic with both teams vying for the victory but no other goals were scored.

Umpires: Andre Ghio, Emile Borg.

Standings
Lightshop Hotsticks 10; Poiatti Qormi 8; Floriana Young Stars 8; Rabat Depiro 5; White Hart 1.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.