Another cold evening heralded the fourth day of the Winter League which had Neptunes Emirates and Exiles Ferretti beating Sirens Ritter Sport and Marsaxlokk respectively.
The Balluta team owed their victory to three sessions which they admi-nistered without any fire-crackers as they won each of them with an identical 3-1 scoreline.
However, they survived a scare in the third session when Sirens staged a bold comeback to pull back on 7-6 after being 7-2 in arrears at the start of that session.
Neptunes’ victory looked in the balance then, and at one moment in the last quarter they had to pull the strings after the northerners had again reduced the deficit to 8-7 with half the session left.
However, a final spurt with two goals from captain Nicky Lanzon, scorer of four goals, put them comfortably in the lead.
After that it was easy going for the Reds for whom Timmy Agius netted a hat-trick as did the returning Dino Zammit for Sirens.
Earlier, Exiles were too good for Marsaxlokk as they beat the southerners comprehensively.
The final score reflected the gap between the teams which was even more pronounced considering the short nine-man squad Marsaxlokk had from a possible 15 unit.
Goals came at regular intervals with Aurelien Cousin’s team cre-ating gaps past a leaking Marsaxlokk rearguard with James Spiteri Staines netting eight.
Neptunes 10
Sirens 7
(3-1, 3-1, 1-4, 3-1)
Neptunes : A. Borg Cole, N. Lanzon 4, M. Stellini, Z. Mizzi, G. Pace, K. Debattista, J. Camilleri 2, M. Lanzon, S. Gravina, B. Lanzon 1, T. Agius 3, C. Mercieca, A. Sammut.
Sirens : A. Grech, A. Attard, M. Caruana, P. Micallef, M. Grech, A. Sammut 1, J. Borg 1, D. Cutajar 1, A. Zarb Cousin, C. Zammit 1, J. Napier, D. Zammit 3, J. Cremona, N. Grixti, G. Merten.
Referees: M. Angilleri, P. Giordano.
Exiles 21
Marsaxlokk 8
(6-2, 8-2, 5-1, 2-3)
Exiles : I. Bugeja, J. Rizzo Naudi, S. Vas-sallo 3, D. Pace Lupi 2, M. Magri, N. Por-telli 1, J. Spiteri Staines 8, K. Grixti 3, M. Paris, P. Borg 1, N. Paris, D. Borg 2, K. Lanzon, R. Bencini 1, A. Galea Pace.
Marsaxlokk : D. Spiteri, A. Bajada, T. Camilleri, K. Grech, K. Mock 5, A. Cachia, C. Bugeja 2, G. Zammit 1, M. Grima.
Referees: A. De Raffaele, S. Licari.
Next Fixtures
March 22: 6.45 pm Sirens vs Exiles; 8pm Sliema vs ASA Selection.