Andre Scicluna grabbed three vital points for Tarxien Rainbows with a crucial late goal against Sliema Wanderers.

The former Floriana defender flicked a header past Glenn Zammit in the added time to stun Sliema and get Tarxien’s their first win of the season.

With Lija Athletic losing and Naxxar drawing, Tarxien can draw some comfort that they left the bottom position to climb out of the relegation zone.

For Sliema, this was their third defeat in six matches, proving that they may lack the consistency to mount a premier league title challenge.

Tarxien’s play was more incisive. On 26 minutes, Ryan Darmanin latched onto Ayrton Azzopardi’s raking pass and bamboozled Nikola Gavric before drilling a low shot beyond Glenn Zammit’s dive and into the bottom right corner of the net for his 100th strike in the Premier League. The former St Andrews striker embarked on a celebratory run, lifting a Tarxien shirt to reveal the ‘100 goals’ slogan as a mark of his achievement.

Sliema drew level nine minutes later. Tarxien defenders Luke Grech and Andre Scicluna left in to each other to close down on Jefferson, who pounced on their hesitation to rifle the ball home.

The next noteworthy episode in the game came four minutes after the restart, when Darmanin tried his luck with a low drive which finished off Glenn Zammit’s far post.

The game remained even for the majority of the second half.

Tarxien continued to venture forward and finally got their reward when Scicluna managed to get a touch to James Brincat’s flick-on from free-kick to head home.

The Rainbows ultimately deserved their reward after soaking up all of Sliema’s pressure and keeping their composure in a hectic second half.