Sam Magri’s hopes of helping Dover Athletic winning promotion to the English League Two came to an end during the weekend after a 1-1 draw at Forest Green in the second leg of the play-off semi-final to go out 2-1 on aggregate.
Malta U-21 defender Magri played both matches as Dover saw their hopes of making the play-off final suffering a blow after losing the home leg 1-0 last Wednesday.
On Saturday, Dover battled hard to overturn the result but their effort was not enough for them to progress to a final showdown with Grimsby Town after the Mariners eliminated Braintree Town.
In Cyprus, Andre Schembri was a late substitute as Omonia Nicosia scored an impressive 3-1 away win at second-placed AEK Larnaca on Saturday.
Schembri was introduced with 12 minutes to go as Omonia held tight to third place in the Championship Pool. They are two points clear of Apollon Limassol who were equally impressive after defeating leaders APOEL Nicosia 1-0 at home.
Defender Steve Borg played the full 90 minutes as Aris Limassol finished at the wrong end of a 2-1 final scoreline to Ethnikos Achnas.
The result left Aris in fourth spot in the Relegation Pool on 38 points, level with Ethnikos Achnas and ahead of bottom-placed Pafos FC with one round of matches left to play this weekend.
In Italy’s Lega Pro (Pool A), Rowen Muscat was a second-half substitute as Pavia beat fellow mid-table side FeralpiSalo 3-1 despite playing for a full hour with ten men.
The Malta midfielder came on 15 minutes after the restart with Pavia already two goals ahead.
The result pushed Pavia to a season-ending ninth place on 49 points, ten clear from Pro Piacenza who will figure in the relegation play-offs this month.
On Saturday, Zach Muscat’s Akragas ended their commitments in the Lega Pro Pool C with a 1-1 draw against table-toppers Benevento 1-1 at their Citta dei Tempi stadium.
The Sicily club were already assured of retaining their status for another year and they rounded up their league campaign with a positive result against Benevento who will be playing Serie B football next season.
In the final standings, Akragas amassed a modest 40 points, just one clear of the last relegation play-offs zone.
Former Serie A club Catania also escaped the dreaded end-of-season deciders by a mere point as the Sicilians beat Fidelis Andria 2-1 on the last day of the championship last weekend to leapfrog Mono-poli in the final standings on a better head-to-head record.