PIETÁ HOTSPURS 2

Degabriele 56

Chimezie 74

ŻEJTUN CORINTHIANS 0

Premier League side Pietá Hotspurs made it through to the quarter-finals of the FA Trophy after seeing off Division One side Żejtun Corinthians 2-0 at the Hibs Stadium. 

Both teams failed to spark into life in the early stages of the game, with Pietá attempting their luck through a couple of long-range efforts from skipper Christian Grech and Uchenna Calistus, who was playing his second game since joining from Birkirkara. 

On 27 minutes, Paul Chimezie headed a set-piece towards goal only to see his effort diverted into corner.

Moments later, Jan Busuttil danced his way into the box but sailed his effort over the bar. 

The Premier League side were not really pushing in numbers in search of the lead, but they still had other opportunities to score, through the likes of Dylan Agius and Neil Pace Cocks even though they did not cause any harm to Żejtun.

The latter came into life in the final stages of the first half.

On 41 minutes, Neil Tabone darted into the box before hitting a curling effort but Nicky Vella was alert to avert the danger.

Afterwards, skipper Adrian Carabott struck the crossbar from an indirect free-kick inside the penalty area before Vitinho saw another close-ranger strike deflected into corner by Pietá’s custodian. 

After the change of ends, the top-flight side forged ahead just before the hour mark when Degabriele flicked a corner from the right-hand side into the far corner amid the relief of the Hotspurs’ clan.

Żejtun started to inch their way up the field and the aches of space left behind were immediately exploited by the Hotspurs when 15 minutes from time, Chimezie doubled the score after capitalising on a well-engineered counter-attack started by Busuttil.