Vittoriosa keep up the pace

Football - BOV Div I

Rabat A Vittoriosa S 2 5

Vittoriosa Stars continued with their positive run beating Rabat Ajax 5-2 to finish the first round a high note. Vittoriosa fully deserved their victory even though the result is rather harsh on the Magpies.

Rabat are now in deep relegation trouble and surely have to improve especially upfront were they lack the necessary punch. For Vittoriosa Obinna Obiefule made a great debut scoring a brace in the process even though his best years are over.

Vittoriosa started the match like a house on fire and forged ahead after only seven minutes play when new signing Obinna Obiefule was brought down inside the area by Dylan Falzon, and from the penalty spot the same Obiefule mad no mistake.

Rabat failed to react and on 21 minutes Vittoriosa doubled the score Ryan Previ scored direct from a freekick from more than 25 meters with his fierce drive deceiving the Rabat custodian. Two minutes later Rabat were back in business when Chris Vella scored direct from a freekick.

Rabat pushed forward in search of the equaliser and went close on 36 minutes with a Ryan Micallef grounder, well saved by Mercieca. Vittoriosa however dominated the last minutes of the first half going close with a shot on the turn by Ryan Previ, and on 43minutes a Petar Mrvic header from a Leighton Grech freekick slightly missed the base of the upright.

Ten minutes into the second half the Vittoriosa custodian made a great save when he turned into a corner a Dario Borg dipper and from the resultant corner the Vittoriosa defence failed to clear and Chris Vella fired the ball home.

But Rabat’s joy was short lived as Vittoriosa were back in front on the hour when Obinna Obiefula scored from close range following a melee inside the Rabat penalty area. Rabat introduced Wayne Borg for Chris Vella but Vittoriosa re-established their two-goal cushion on 71 minutes when Leighton Grech made his way inside the area to beat Zammit with a low drive.

Rabat were unlucky on 86 minutes when an Adam Smeir shot smashed against the crossbar and two minutes later Vittoriosa scored their fifth and final goal when from a corner action, substitute Emanuel Mbong drilled the ball home.

Rabat A: A. Zammit, J.Caruana, S. Gauci, A. Smeir, D. Falzon, G. Bugeja, D. Borg, R. Micallef, C.Vella (W. Borg), A. Azzopardi, Z. Tanti.

Vittoriosa S: J.Mercieca, C. Spiteri (S. Agius), D. Pisani, P. Mrvic (D. Sammut), R. Previ, L.Grech, A. Galea, O. Obiefule (E. Mbong), D. Fava, A. Farrugia, C.G. Mallia.

Referee: Sandro Spiteri

Rabat Ajax’s Joseph Caruana (right) heads first ahead of Dione Fava of Vittoriosa Stars (left) Photo: Domenic Aquilina