San Ġwann 4
Senglea Athletic 2

San Ġwann chalked up their first league win of the season after easing past Senglea Athletic at the Tedesco Stadium yesterday.

Although the Saints' task was doubtless made easier by the dismissal of Senglea's Jovil Abela midway through the second half, the Division One newcomers were the better side for long spells and fully deserved their win.

While San Ġwann savoured their first victory of the season yesterday, Senglea are still winless after five matches.

The game had a quiet start but San Ġwann opened the scoring on 19 minutes. Antoine Zahra ably controlled Firaz Aboulezz's cross before hitting the ball home from the edge of the area.

Two minutes later, San Ġwann might have doubled their lead but Aboulezz failed to capitalise after George Attard had misjudged Zahra's cross-shot.

The Saints paid dearly for this miss as minutes later, Senglea drew level. Erin Azzopardi profited from some poor marking by San Ġwann to fire a firm drive that gave Spiteri no chance.

On 33 minutes, San Ġwann's Lee Cumbo made a diagonal run from the left to beat Senglea's offside trap but his drive from 20 metres was well saved by Attard.

Five minutes from the break, Zahra, a constant threat to the Senglea rearguard, swept past Stefano Zampa before producing a firm shot that was again blocked by Attard.

Two minutes later, Zahra had to abandon the match after picking up an injury. He was replaced by Steve Pisani.

San Ġwann started the second half brightly, taking only four minutes to regain the lead. Aboulezz scored for the Saints after the Senglea defence had failed to clear a Chris Cuschieri cross.

Senglea tried to rally and shortly past the hour, Spiteri did well to block Leroy Bonnet's free-kick. At the other end, a Cumbo effort was saved by Attard.

On 69 minutes, Senglea's hopes suffered a hammer blow when Abela was sent off for stamping on the grounded Cumbo.

Playing with a man more, San Ġwann took control of the match. On 70 minutes Cumbo should have done better than fire over from routine distance after some good work by Cuschieri.

San Ġwann wrapped up the three points when, with 12 minutes remaining, Pisani received an intelligent pass from Aboulezz and steered his grounder past Attard.

Seven minutes from time, San Ġwann made it 4-1 when Cumbo finished off a fine move by drilling a low shot past Attard.

Senglea gave the scoreline a more respectable look in stoppage time when Chris Borg stole possession just inside the area and beat San Ġwann substitute goalkeeper Frank Axisa.

San Ġwann
J. Spiteri (F. Axisa), C. Giordmaina, M. Caruana, R. Newell, J. Buttigieg, A. Borg, C. Cuschieri, F. Aboulezz, L. Cumbo, S. Hili (N. Goodlip), A. Zahra (S. Pisani).

Senglea
G. Attard, D. Cosaitis, S. Aquilina, D. Zahra, M. Schembri (A. Sciortino), L. Bonnet, O. Ellul (C. Borg), S. Zampa, J. Abela, E. Azzopardi, J. Felice (N. Abela).

Referee: Saviour Tanti.

Red card: J. Abela (SA) 69.

Man of the match: Firaz Aboulezz (San Ġwann).

Pietà-St Patrick match tomorrow

The Division One match between Pietà Hotspurs and St Patrick, postponed last Saturday, has been rescheduled for tomorrow at the Centenary Stadium, kicking off at 6 p.m., the Malta FA has announced.

Pietà were due to meet St Patrick in the second fixture on Saturday's card but a heavy downpour in the morning rendered the pitch of the Hibs Ground unfit to host two matches in a row. In the only match played, Vittoriosa Stars beat rivals St George's 3-2.