Mellieħa and Lija Athletic maintained their good form of late in the First Division after seeing off Attard and Mdina respectively at the Corradino Sports Pavilion to consolidate their top positions in the standings.

A goal after three minutes paved the way for Mellieħa’s victory over fifth-placed Attard who offered stiff resistance in the first half.

On the restart, the Northerners increased their pressure to get the winning goals that gave them three precious points.

Mellieħa’s goals came from Nikolai Filipov, Daniel Saliba, Radoslav Kovachev, Craig Pickard and Robert Magro.

Gianni Aquilina had temporarily levelled matters for Attard.

Lija Athletic emulated their nearest rivals by chalking up their ninth win of the season after beating Mdina Knights 6-1.

After finding themselves a goal down, Lija reacted swiftly to restore parity within 20 seconds.

This goal bolstered Lija who were determined to keep the pace with Mellieħa in the promotion hunt, also having a game in hand.

Florin Manea and Aleksandar Ribic netted twice for Lija with Jason Gauci and Mark Mizzi getting the other goals.

Neil Cauchi scored Mdina’s goal.

Division One standings
Mellieħa 30; Lija 27; Naxxar 22; Luqa 18; Attard 15; Siġġiewi, Msida 12; Sirens 11; Mqabba 9; Mdina, Qrendi 7; Birżebbuġa 1.

Knock-Out competition

Meanwhile, Swieqi and Gżira reached the next round of the Knock-Out competition after having the better of Qrendi and Siġġiewi respectively.

They joined Luxol, Valletta, Qormi and Balzan who had already qualified for the next phase of this competition.

Hat-tricks from Paul Hyzler and Fredrick Johansson, a brace by Edward Sammut Alessi and goals by Sebastian Delsinger, Kenneth Bonanno and an own goal helped Swieqi see off Qrendi 11-3.

Gżira recorded an important win, 4-2, over first division side Siġġiewi.

Luke Stivala, Alessio Restuccia, Josh Parry and Sean Vella were the goal-getters for Gżira.

James Borg and Andrew Briffa reduced the arrears for Siġġiewi.