Pietà Hotspurs 6
Msida SJ 0
Robson Luiz Bandeira notched a hat-trick and Zach Muscat was also on target twice as Pietà Hotspurs showed no mercy in crushing neighbours Msida St Joseph in the preliminary round of the U*Bet FA Trophy.
The Hotspurs outclassed by their Division One rivals in a one-sided clash to earn a first- round tie against Hibernians on Saturday at the Tedesco Stadium.
There was no way back for the Saints after the Hotspurs hit them with a three-goal blitz in the opening 15 minutes.
The Hotspurs enjoyed an ideal start to the game when Sheldon Grech released Bandeira inside the first three minutes and the striker coolly slid in the opener. Iro Curmi’s side simply did not know what had hit them when the Brazilian added a second goal on 13 minutes.
Msida goalkeeper Jeremy Alden went out of his box as he tried to cut out a cross-field pass but intended target Bandeira kept his calm to elude the keeper before tapping home.
The Saints’ misery was compounded when Bandeira turned provider two minutes later, crossing for Muscat who made no mistake with a simple tap-in.
Msida shored up their defence and enjoyed some respite but were breached again in the 41st minute when Grech showed his quality by curling in a beautiful free-kick from the edge of the box to make it 4-0.
The Msida defence dug deep after the break as they tried to stem the goals flow in a damage-limitation exercise but it seemed inevitable that the Hotspurs would score again. In fact on 57 minutes Muscat headed home from Grech’s free-kick.
Msida were denied a consolation after 72 minutes when Ryan Xuereb’s shot struck the post and Rodney Caruana should have done better from the rebound.
Pietà continued to come their way and substitute Jesmond Azzopardi carved open the shell-shocked Msida defence from a corner to serve up an opportunity which Robson gleefully accepted to complete his hat-trick after 79 minutes.
To add insult to injury, few moments later, Msida struck the woodwork for the second time with a blistering shot by Caruana.
Pietà: K. Vella, C. Spiteri (53 A. Briffa), R. Mifsud, B. Sciberras, G. Busuttil, R.L. Bandeira, S. Grech, Z. Muscat (69 T. Agius), J. Pisani, D. Mifsud (60 J. Azzopardi), D. Camilleri.
Msida SJ: J. Alden, K. Grech, N. Curmi (50 A. Formosa), L. Cassar, R. Caruana, R. Xuereb, L. Micallef, K. Saliba (55 A. Grech), K. Caruana (65 A. Farrugia), P. Sakchai, M. Borda.
Referee: Esther Azzopardi.