Pietà Hotspurs 2
Lija Athletic 0

A controversial penalty midway through the second half, scored by Vinicius Pereira dos Santos two minutes after Lija had a man sent off, and another goal by the Brazilian late on earned Pietà a hard-fought win that propelled the team to sole leadership.

Lija deserved a point for all they did, particularly in the first half, as they saw more of the ball. However, in the end, they finished empty-handed and are still anch-ored to the lower end of the standings.

The first half saw Hotspurs no.1 Miguel Montfort the busiest of the two goalkeepers.

After only 10 minutes, Antoine Sacco just missed the Pietà goal following some fine work by Ab-dullahi Adeshina Ige.

Pietà had an Ezequile Belzuz Giaccaglia header just over the bar but it was Montfort who saved his side with two superb saves, first to stop Daniel Scerri’s scorcher and then to deny Thomas Caruana from the loose ball.

Lija were now setting the pace and a Renato Conceicao free-kick almost had the better of Montfort who was on the right spot to stop Ige’s effort soon after.

Pietà suffered a setback on 26 minutes when anchorman Giaccaglia had to be stretchered off the field injured.

Dos Santos tested the Lija keeper with two successive efforts that, however, proved fruitless as a Timothy Fleri Soler header was tipped over the bar by Montfort and Sacco blasted wide from a good position at the other end.

Fleri Soler was lucky not to commit an own goal soon after the restart in his attempt to clear a Jurgen Pisani cross and again Pietà had Montfort to thank when he stopped an insidious Erjon Beu ball inside the six-yard box.

Lija were dealt a blow on 65 minutes when Andre Scicluna was sent off for a second yellow card and more woes awaited Lija two minutes later.

Cain Attard’s centre was picked up by Zach Muscat who looked to have been slightly impeded in the box by Jean Paul Scerri. The decision was harsh but from the penalty Dos Santos made it 1-0.

Lija lost composure and seven minutes from time Ini parried Attard’s shot but Dos Santos made it 2-0 from the rebound.

Pietà: M. Montfort, S. Micallef (C. Attard), C. Spiteri (M. Agius), E. Giaccaglia (C. Cutajar), Z. Muscat, V.P. Dos Santos, C. Cassar, J. Bilbao Zarate, J. Pisani, I. Grech, A. Farrugia.

Lija: E. Ini, T. Fleri Soler, M. Fleri Soler, A. Sacco, R. Conceicao, D. Scerri, E. Beu, J.P. Scerri, A. Ige, A Scicluna, T. Caruana (B. Camilleri, B. Fenech, E. Briffa).

Referee: Andrew J. Sammut.

Man of the match: Vinicius Pereira dos Santos (Pietà Hotspurs).