Rabat Depiro 4
White Hart 3

The Challenge Cup match between Rabat Depiro and White Hart developed into an exciting encounter with both sides giving their all from the word go.

White Hart took an early lead when Luke Borg Costanzi put Paul Torpiano through. Torpiano's hit was smothered away by the Rabat custodian but Sandro Bartolo was on hand to tap the ball home.

Within a few minutes White Hart had doubled their advantage. It was a good move on the right which again saw Borg Costanzi set up Torpiano whose attempt was saved by Azzopardi only for Bartolo to hammer the rebound home.

Rabat kept their cool and in the 25th minute they pulled one back when Charlot Antonelli pranced his way through the White Hart defence and beat Vassallo Agius.

Keeping up the pressure, Rabat levelled matters seven minutes later when they were awarded a penalty stroke for an irregular clearance off the fatal line. Shawn Falzon converted the resultant stroke.

In the second half, White Hart went straight on the attack and in the second minute, Ian Azzopardi pulled off a fine save off Borg Costanzi. However, the latter was not to be denied a couple of minutes later when he beat Azzopardi from a short corner action with the ball taking a deflection on its way in.

Rabat went all out in search of an equaliser but had to wait until the 62nd minute. Kevin Micallef intercepted a wayward 16-yard hit, passed to the unmarked Falzon and the latter beat Vassallo Agius with an unstoppable reverse hit.

As the minutes ticked away, Rabat had the last laugh when Kenneth Debattista took advantage of a goalmouth melee to give his side a hard-earned 4-3 victory.