Anton Tagliaferro was a relieved man on Saturday after the Balzan president saw his team finally end their long wait for a first major trophy in Maltese football when they defeated Valletta 5-4 on penalties after a thrilling FA Trophy final which had ended in a 4-4 draw after extra-time at the National Stadium.

For the last three years, Balzan had been knocking on the door to try and win one of the major honours in Maltese football but each time, for one reason or another, they fell at the last hurdle.

On Saturday, it looked as though Balzan’s dream of silverware was set to vanish in thin air again.

After taking a commanding 4-2 lead in extra-time, courtesy of a poker of goals from man-of-the-match Alfred Effiong, the unexpected happened as Valletta, despite having Bogdan Gavrila sent off in the final ten minutes, still managed to restore parity with goals from a Mario Fontanella penalty and Rowen Muscat to force a penalty shoot-out.

But the Balzan players soon regained their composure for the decisive shoot-out as they managed to edge the newly-crowned champions and lift the coveted trophy for the first time in the club’s history.

“In a way it feels overdue to Balzan FC,” Tagliaferro told the Times of Malta yesterday.

“In the last years we came very close to secure a title, but we never got over the line.

“In 2016 we lost the FA Trophy final to Sliema Wanderers, then we finished twice runners-up in the Premier League to Hibernians and Valletta before losing the Super Cup final to Valletta earlier this season.

“We were always knocking on the door to win a trophy, but we always had something missing. So actually, I feel a huge sense of relief now that we have finally fulfilled our objective as I always believed that this day would come.”

The Balzan president admitted that his team earned their success the hard way after overcoming a resilient Valletta team who refused to accept defeat in Saturday’s contest.

“At 4-2 in extra-time, I thought that it would be hard to lose the match, but Valletta had other plans,” the Balzan supremo said.

“Honestly, I would like to express my congratulations to Valletta who kept fighting and coming back to us throughout the 120 minutes. But in the end, I think we fully deserved to lift this trophy.

“The players were very motivated not only because of the prestige in winning a trophy but they wanted to make amends from missing out on a European spot through the Premier League. We did succeed against a very determined opponent and now we’re back in European football for a fifth season in a row which for me is a marvellous feat.”

Balzan FC president Anton Tagliaferro kisses the FA Trophy.

Balzan’s FA Trophy success surely made amends for what was a rather disappointing campaign for the Reds and Tagliaferro said that the club’s decision to bring in Jacques Scerri as their new coach in February turned out to be a coup.

“I think we always had a good squad of players,” he said.

“The main problem was the fact that we needed to bring in a new coach that could help us improve our defensive organisation as we were conceding too many goals and Jacques Scerri certainly did that.

“I always had great admiration for him since his time at Tarxien where he managed to build a very good team out of nothing.

“There were a lot of people who said that our season was disappointing, but I think this year we were surprised by the performances of clubs such as Ħamrun Spartans and to a certain extent Hibernians.

“Added to that we were unlucky to lose Kadu for so many weeks due to a long-term knee injury.

“For us he is a classy player and he had shown all his talents in the Europa League qualifiers where he single-handedly helped us to be Kesla and then was instrumental in beating Slovan Bratislava at home.

“Kadu’s absence had a huge impact for us. I don’t want to make excuses but I’m sure that if we had him in our team in some crucial matches the season we could have had easily picked six or seven points more which could have made a lot of difference.”

Competitive team

Although 24 hours passed since their FA Trophy success, Tagliaferro was yesterday looking at next season with his first priority being a competitive team for the Europa League qualifiers.

“Our aim is to do well in the Europa League as it not only adds prestige to Balzan but, more importantly, attracts more funds to our club,” Tagliaferro said.

“We have already started working on identifying targets for next season to ensure we have a competitive team for Europe. Once our continental adventure ends, we then arrive at the end of August to try and complete our team for the domestic campaign.

“Next season our goal will again be to try and qualify for the Europa League.”

During his time as president Tagliaferro has created a network of clubs which seen Balzan involved in twinning agreements with Serbian giants Red Star Belgrade and Australian side Central Coast Mariners.

At the Mariners, Tagliaferro has also taken a more influential role as he is now acting as one of the club’s non-executive directors.

The Australia-based businessman said that this network is crucial for the club to help them transform their upcoming players in the future stars of the club.

“Here at Balzan we have one of the three elite nurseries in Malta and it has always been our philosophy to try and develop the potential of our young players,” he said.

“We are still working with some Balzan boys who have been sent to Serbia to further their development and that will continue next year.

“As regards with the Central Coast Mariners connection, the fact that their season is over it could give us the opportunity to bring some players for the Europa League qualifiers and then send some of our players for a stint with the Australian club later on in the summer.

“At the end of the day our main goal is to ensure that Balzan continues to grow in all aspects and hopefully our FA Trophy success will help us to remain on this winning path for years to come.”