Hard earned victories for Floriana and White Hart

Floriana Young Stars 2 Lightshop Hotsticks 0

Umpires: Raymond Micallef, Andre Ghio

An intriguing encounter which saw both teams playing tightly at the back leaving hardly any space for forwards to have a shot at goal.

Close man to man marking caused moves to break down and half time was reached with the game deadlocked at 0-0.

The second half provided end to end stuff with Young Stars forcing a penalty corner on 39 minutes which saw the Hotsticks custodian pushing away a full length.

On 43 minutes Mark Camilleri released a cracker to shoot Young Stars ahead as a result of a penalty corner action.

From then on Young Stars applied tactics to stifle Hotsticks’ build up moves down the flanks and on 55 minutes Anton Saliba shot low into the corner of the net to send Young Stars into a 2-0 lead as a result of a penalty corner award.

From then on, Hotsticks battled away at their opponents’ rearguard but Young Stars proved to be dangerous when counter attacking with Luke Borg Costanzi proving to be a headache with his mazy dribbles into the heart of the Hotsticks’ defence.

Hotsticks came close to pulling one back just before the end but the final whistle saw Young Stars win this hard fought match by two clear goals.

Rabat Depiro 1 Laferla White Hart 2

Umpires: Manuel Imbroll, Steve Cachia

This game was played at a fast pace right through with both teams throwing down the gauntlet from the word go.

On 10 minutes Matthew Buhagiar pushed home from close range as a result of a penalty corner action to send Rabat one up.

White Hart struck back immediately and on 12 minutes Charlo Sammut scored with a shot low into the corner of the net for the score to read 1-1.

The rest of the half was played at fast and furious pace but the score remained unchanged at half time.

The second half saw Rabat dominate proceedings, not availing themselves of several penalty corner awards, even hitting a post on one occasion.

They continued to exert pressure on the White Hart rear guard and just when it seemed that the game would end in a draw, a minute from time Paul Torpiano popped up to push in a rebound and sent White Hart into a 2-1 lead which they held until the final whistle.