Mosta 4
Piccioni 29, 47 pen; Martins 56 pen, 69;
Rabat Ajax 0
Mosta reignited their bid for a Championship Pool berth after brushing aside Rabat Ajax.
After a humiliating 6-0 defeat to Valletta in their previous outing, the Blues were in desperate need of maximum points to put their aspirations of a top-six finish back on track.
Gianmarco Piccioni again underlined his importance to the team’s cause with a man-of-the-match performance and a double as the Blues strengthened their grip on fifth place in the standings.
Rabat left the stadium ruing a few missed chances in the opening half which could have given the match a different twist.
They have a lot of work to do to improve their defence as poor marking in key moments again turned out to be their undoing.
Mosta coach Danilo Doncic rang the changes as Ryan Grech, Jonas Ekani, Armando, Christian Martins and Yuri Messias were all handed a place in the starting formation.
Ishmael Grech and Ricardo were relegated to the bench while Nicola Cosentini, Francesco Calcagno and Haruna Bara were not in-cluded in the 18-man squad.
Steve D’Amato, the Rabat coach, was boosted by the return of Spanish duo Diego Carrillo and Daniel Pelaez and Shaun Gauci. Jonathan Bajada was back from injury.
The Magpies made the better start and after nine minutes Carrillo picked Moises Avila Perez in the area but he dallied to conclude and then fired in the side-netting.
On 14 minutes Rabat’s Jonathan Azzopardi did well to push away Piccioni’s drive from the edge of the area and the goalkeeper distinguished himself again when keeping out Martins’s firm drive.
Rabat then created the best chance when Carrillo’s cross-shot flashed across the face of goal with Malcolm Licari just failing to make contact in front of a gaping goal.
The Magpies paid dearly for that miss as on 29 minutes, the Blues took the lead.
They won a free-kick on the edge of the area and Piccioni hit a fierce shot that gave Azzopardi no chance.
Rabat should have drawn level three minutes from the break when in a quick break Carrillo found Avila Perez unmarked in the area but he headed straight into the hands of Omar Borg, the Mosta goalkeeper.
Mosta doubled their lead two minutes into the second half when referee Mario Apap harshly deemed that Shaun Gauci had handled the ball inside the area and ordered a penalty. Piccioni cooly slotted the ball home to put his team 2-0 ahead.
The Blues were awarded a second penalty on 56 minutes after Ivan Carapic floored Piccioni as the Italian striker was about to shoot. Martins took the spot-kick this time and he beat Azzopardi with a clever chip.
Piccioni almost completed his hat-trick when he burst into the area but his grounder was kept out by Azzopardi.
Mosta added a fourth goal on 69 minutes. Substitute Ricardo sped into the opponents’ box before teeing up Martins who headed the ball past the keeper.
Mosta
O. Borg-6, K. Farrugia-6 (80 K. Zammit), T. Farrugia-6, M. Brincat-6, M. Micallef-6.5, R. Grech-6.5, J. Ekani-6, Armando-6.5 (74 I. Grech), C. Martins-7, Y. Messias-6 (65 Ricardo-6), G. Piccioni-7.5.
Rabat Ajax
J. Azzopardi-5, S. Gauci-5, D. Azzopardi-5, I. Carapic-6, D. Falzon-5, C. Gauci-5, M. Licari-5 (67 A. Azzopardi, 90 Z. Tanti), D. Pelaez-5 (76 J. Caruana), D. Carrillo-6, M. Avila Perez-5, J. Bajada-5.
Referee: Mario Apap.
Yellow cards: Armando, Brincat, Pelaez, Carapic, T. Farrugia.
BOV Player of the match: Gian Marco Piccioni (Mosta).