Mosta 0
Tarxien Rainbows 0
In a game of few chances, neither side could carve out victory and the outcome was a result that did not serve the purposes of Mosta coach Ivan Zammit and his Tarxien Rainbows counterpart Jacques Scerri.
Tarxien moved to fourth place with 19 points and a better goal difference than the more-quoted Hibernians and Floriana.
Mosta are one point adrift. They had the better of the first half but after the break the Rainbows were the more dominant force.
As the game wore on Luke Montebello came to the fore but the young striker was unable to break the impasse, at times looking out of sorts as he wasted a string of chances to put his team in command.
The best of Mosta’s early counter-attacks saw Hassan Yau run almost the entire length of the field but his team-mate Samuel Chuckwide wasted the chance.
Yesterday, Mosta had Dyson Falzon in the starting formation with James Brincat on the bench as Omar Borg was preferred to Yenz Cini in goal.
Tarxien’s bold display against Qormi earlier this week encouraged Jacques Scerri to opt for the same line-up.
The game was on a balanced keel with both teams locked in midfield.
Ivan Zammit’s side banked on fast breaks as Tarxien, on the other hand, were a disciplined lot who turned the ball around in attack diligently until they released a player in a good position to shot.
Mosta could have opened the scoring very early in the match as a fast break caught the Tarxien rearguard on the wrong foot.
Yau was quick to send a cross towards Murga who squared for Chuckwide but the Nigerian striker hit the ball wide from a good position.
Ayrton Azzopardi tried to surprise Borg, who was out of position, with a rising shot but the Mosta goalkeeper recovered in time to tip over the bar.
There was a visible slump in proceedings as the first half wore out with play becoming fragmented and chances for goal dwindling significantly.
On resumption, Tarxien lost a good opportunity when Montebello came face-to-face with the Mosta goalkeeper but Borg did well to keep out the striker’s feeble effort.
Montebello, fresh from a national team call-up, was out of luck again five minutes later, shooting straight at the keeper’s hands as his confidence levels seemed badly affected.
That lack of self-belief was most evident on the hour mark, when Montebello squandered another gilt-edged chance after being favoured by a deflection off Manolito Micallef’s back.
Again, with only Borg to beat, he fired into the side netting.
Mosta
O. Borg-6.5, T. Farrugia-6, M. Micallef-6, O. Guobadia-6, A. Borg-6, H. Yau-6.5, S. Fidelis-5.5 (75 B. Abel Fredrick), R. Ekani-6, E. Murga-6.5, D. Falzon-6 (74 J. Brincat), S. Chukwide-6 (88 Z. Brincat).
Tarxien Rainbows
A. Cassar-6.5, E. Baker-6.5, B. Giglio de Oliveira-6, T. Caruana-6, B. Muscat-6, A. Azzopardi-5.5, C. Hevia-6.5, L. Montebello-5 (73 L. Omeruo), A. Alves-5, J. Pedro-5.5 (68 M. Caruana-5), A. Raimundo-7.5.
Referee: Alan Mario Sant.
Yellow cards: Yau, Pedro.
BOV player of the match: Anderson Raimundo da Silva (Tarxien).