Hamrun Spartans 0 Floriana 1
A solitary goal by Ivan Woods helped Floriana to steal an early march on rivals Hamrun Spartans.
In the opening minutes, the Spartans looked the far more cohesive of the two sides and with the midfield area congested, made early inroads down the flanks. Anderson Ribeiro struck an instant understanding with Kevin Sammut to create a number of chances for Gaetan Spiteri, and they were guided by the ever-green Rupert Mangion.
Ribeiro was a constant threat on Floriana's right flank, giving Duncan Pisani a torrid time. He fired narrowly off target early on and pulled another effort just wide after 14 minutes.
They fashioned enough chances in the first opening half an hour alone to comfortably win the match.
Floriana mentor Michael Woods was desperate to shore up the Greens defence and replaced Tyrone Farrugia with Clyde Borg as Pablo Doffo dropped back to centre-half alongside Owen Bugeja.
The Greens took immediately advantage of the defensive readjustment to break the deadlock eight minutes later. Pisani found Ivan Woods on the right flank, who chested the ball down and beat Omar Borg with an impressive volley.
After 53 minutes, Joseph Borg got onto the end of Clyde Borg's dinked cross but rifled a shot over the bar.
Midway through the second half, Mangion split the Floriana defence with a pinpoint free-kick to unleash Toneto Porcari but his point-blank header was well saved by Bartolo.
However, on the hour stroke, Floriana almost punished Hamrun's flat-out approach with a counter-attack but Borg needed to be alert as John Mintoff tried his luck with a neat shot.
Hamrun had exerted a small measure of supremacy as the half wore on, but Floriana's threat was still in evidence. After 74 minutes, substitute Caruana made use of his light frame to start a move with some fancy footwork that ended with Mintoff miskicking in front of goal.
With the clocking ticking down, the Spartans pressed with more urgency of attempting to trouble the Floriana rearguard. In the 84th minute, Massimo Grima's header from Mangion's free-kick was blocked on the line by Bartolo.
Hamrun's growing desperation summoned up at death when Ribeiro's goalbound shot came off team-mate Toneto Porcari.