The visit of Rotherham United in May 1951 created a lot of interest among the Maltese.
Rotherham were an unfas-hionable club but were riding on the crest of a wave that season. When they came to Malta, they had already been declared champions of the northern section of the English Third Division league.
Rotherham did not disappoint the Maltese and by the time they met the MFA XI on May 29, 1951 they had already beaten the UK Services XI 2-0, Hibernians 14-3, Valletta 2-1 and Sliema Wanderers 6-0.
The fine game played by Malta against Weiner in that season’s Christmas Tourney raised the expectations of the local fans and, although played in midweek, the Rotherham fixture attracted a sizeable crowd to the stadium.
The MFA XI had led 1-0 against slick Austrians Weiner up to the final seconds of the game when a last-gasp goal saved the visitors’ blushes.
Before the game against Rot-herham, there were many rumours going around that Floriana were not going to allow their players to turn up for the national team because of their dispute with the MFA over the fixtures of the FA Trophy.
Towards the end of that season’s competition, the Greens were touring England in connection with the Festival of Britain and when the MFA refused to postpone their semi-final against Sliema, the Greens refused to take part in the Rotherham tourney.
On the day of the match, however, all speculation was squashed as the team included no fewer than seven players from the Floriana camp.
The two teams lined up as follows:
MFA XI: Ġużi Alamango, Lolly Debattista, Lolly Cuschieri, Joseph Grech, Tony Dalli, Tony Vella, Joe Pirotta (Ġużi Camilleri), Salvinu Schembri, Tony Nicholl (Nenu Bonavia), Lolly Borg, Pullu Demanuele.
Rotherham: Bolton, Selkirk, Noble, Edwards, Gibson, Rawson, White, Williams, Grainger, Guest, Tomlinson.
There was no doubt that Rother-ham were technically superior but the courage and resilience of the local players won the day for them.
The visitors did the bulk of the attacking but the Maltese looked more dangerous in their isolated raids. The English team started well and after only seven minutes, Alamango had to fly across goal to turn away for a corner a full-bloodied shot by Williams.
The Maltese weathered the early pressure and, as the game progressed, came more and more into the picture.
On 31 minutes, a mighty roar greeted the first goal.
Tony Vella lobbed the ball into the area, Lolly Borg headed it backwards to Tony Nicholl who planted the ball into the net.
Seven minutes later, Rotterham scored the equaliser.
Tony Dalli gave away a free-kick just outside the Malta box and Noble let loose a powerful grounder which beat Alamango.
Three minutes into the second half, Nicholl restored the lead for the MFA XI.
This goal rattled the Englishmen in no small way. They sent every available man forward but during one of their attacks, Grech punted the ball upfield to Nicholl. The latter shot at goal but Gibson blocked, the ball fell to Lolly Borg who drove hard into the net.
These two snap goals filled the Maltese with confidence as Rotherham went all out in seach of a goal but the MFA defence stood firm.
The English full-backs went up with their forwards but they could not find a chink in the locals’ armour.
The Maltese now concentrated on defence and the final whistle came with the MFA winners by three goals to one.