Vittoriosa Stars 0
Tarxien Rainbows 3
Tarxien took a giant step towards promotion after beating Vittoriosa Stars 3-0. Now, they have to beat St Patrick in the last game of the season to make sure of a place in the top flight.
With Manwel Caruana and Malcolm Buttigieg marshalling their defence and Angus Buhagiar again in superb form, there was no stopping Tarxien who played cautiously after opening the score.
The first 45 minutes belonged to Tarxien. They produced wave after wave of attacks but found the Vittoriosa rearguard difficult to breach.
On 17 minutes a John Paul Muscat drive finished just over the Vittoriosa goal and then a Buhagiar shot was saved in style by Cassar.
Tarxien continued to press forward and a Muscat strike from just inside the area was stopped by Cassar following a clever Buhagiar pass.
On the stroke of half-time Tarxien went close to opening the score when a Manwel Caruana header was headed off the line by Justin Camilleri.
However, a minute into the second half, substitute Melvin Pisani rifled home from just inside the area, after the Vittoriosa defence had half-cleared a Muscat delivery inside their box.
Vittoriosa started coming back into the match and on 66 minutes Anthony Eviparker nodded a ball into the path of Keith Darmanin whose shot from 15-metres flashed just wide.
On 75 minutes Sean Cini did well to stop Eviparker's shot but five minutes from time Buhagiar secured it for Tarxien. He picked up a ball from the left, outsmarted two defenders and fired a rasping drive past Cassar.
On 87 minutes, the Vittoriosa defence was caught napping and Muscat profited to make it 3-0.
Vittoriosa
I. Cassar, S. Privitelli, J. Camilleri, C. Sciberras, A. Eviparker, K. Darmanin, R. Adami (C. Cachia), L. Grech, S. Calleja, D. Gauci, K. Spiteri (H. Hughes).
Tarxien Rainbows
S. Cini; S. Sadowski, M. Caruana, M. Buttigieg, O. Grech (M. Pisani), S. Shead (J. Shead), A. Buhagiar, A. Decesare (G. Cutajar), R. Schembri, J.P. Muscat, L. Vella Critien.
Referee: Marco Borg.
Man of the match: Manuel Caruana (Tarxien Rainbows).