Pembroke get some respite against ten-man Spartans

Football - BOV Premier League

confidence.

Following the humiliation against Tarxien Rainbows the previous week, Pembroke’s coach Artim Shakjiri reshuffled his side and made no less than five changes yesterday. He dropped the Roppas brothers as well as fellow midfielder Giannopoulos, besides defender Adrian Borg and midfileder Sunday Eboh. Matthew Calleja Cremona, Zoran Levnaic, Miguel Attard, Asani Djeljilj and debutant Raphael Kooh Sohna started instead.

Pembroke produced voluminous work in midfield, where Arber Dharmi, Zoran Levnaic and even Darren Falzon worked tirelessly in front of a composed defence and fought hard for this deserved victory.

Hamrun were a jaded side, bereft of creativity with many of their players performing below par. After falling behind early, they had Jorge Neto sent off before the break, and that presented a bleak outcome already.

The return from suspension of Massimiliano Guisti, forced Nanapere out on the Hamrun bench. Coach Jacques Scerri also called up Manolito Micallef instead of Karl Micallef as right back.

Hamrun got off to a horrible start when they conceded after only seven minutes in a sloppy manner. Their defence was caught unawares on a Sciberras back header and Darren Falzon found the ball invitingly into his path to slam it in past the helpless keeper Cassar.

Four minutes later the Hamrun keeper had to stretch himself to hold out Falzon’s curling free kick from the edge of the area.

Midway through the half, Pembroke’s Jawad was forced to leave the pitch with an arm injury. But they still remained the sharper side on the ball and on 37 minutes Kooh Sohna picked Racic’s pass, found space but shot fractionally over.

Hamrun remained flat and they failed to put even one decent shot at the Pembroke goal in a poor first half.

To add insult to injury they had Jorge Neto sent off shortly before halftime as he attempted to hit Racic in retaliation to Kooh Sohna’s foul on Misan.

Hamrun effected a double substitution at halftime, putting in Leandro Motta in midfield and Karl Micallef as right back, switching Manolito Micallef to the left. They tried to show more urgency but were erratic in their delivery of crosses as Pembroke remained or- ganised and tactically well drilled, never conceding spaces to their opponents.

Although they swarmed around the Pembroke penalty area in search of an equaliser, the Spartans looked short of ideas. They only tested keeper Calleja Cremona with a Jake Grech central free kick, after Kooh Sohna had missed the target when hitting Racic’s long ball first time.

And with Pembroke staying tight at the back without trying to strike the killer punch, unsurpris- ingly the quality of play dipped further in the second half.

A rare glimpse at the Pembroke goal six minutes from time, allowed Manolito Micallef, who had taken a more advanced role, to shoot hard but keeper Calleja Cremona was equal to task.

In added time, Pembroke could have even scored a second when Hamrun were caught with the goalkeeper out of his place but somehow Cassar managed to recover and block Falzon’s final shot.

Pembroke’s Miguel Attardgets entangled with Hamrun’s Giusti. Photo: Domenic Aquilina