HIBERNIANS 1 FLORIANA O

Andrew Cohen struck an important winner in the 24th minute to keep alive Hibernians' slim hopes of challenging Valletta for the league championship.

Thanks to the victory, Hibs have narrowed the gap to the leaders to three points but Valletta take on Birkirkara tomorrow.

The first 20 minutes of today's match passed with little incident. Soon after Clayton Failla tested water with a pulverising that ended high over the bar.This proved to be the prelude of Hibernians' opener which came less than four minutes later. Andrew Cohen made early inroads on the right flank, with a typical driving run, before veering to the centre and unleashed a pile drive that fizzed past Manuel Bartolo and went in off the inside of the post.

The Greens responded with a flowing three–man move which ended with Alandson's rising shot that fizzed wide. First, Sodje headed the ball into the path of Grabowski who with a clever, nimble turn set up the Brazilian but the latter's shot rolled out of the far post.

Just before half-time, Floriana had a goal ruled out for offside when Sodje was adjudged to have slipped offside from Woods' cross. The Nigerian rose unchallenged to head home from close-range but was immediately flagged offside by the referee's assistant.

The match entered a lull in the opening period of the second half with little in the way of shot. However, on the hour mark, Kristensen masterminded a flash of brilliance as he flicked the ball over defenders' heads and served Edward Herrera but the latter's low shot came to nothing.

Three minutes later, Edison exercised his neck muscles to get his head to his head to a Cohen cross but arched a header just wide. On the other side, ten minutes later, Woods spotting Mario Muscat out of goal, tried a delightful lob but the ball finished over the bar.

In the closing stages, Hibernians mounted a lengthy raid on Floriana's defence mainly thanks to substitute Marcelo Dias who showed some deft footwork to beat Manolito Micallef only to be dispossessed by an attentive Farrugia.