Win remains rare commodity for both Hamrun and Tarxien

Football - BOV Premier League

Grech.

Tarxien coach Jesmond Zerafa was absent from the bench, with his assistant, Brian Testaferrata, taking over.

Andrea Cassar was back in goal following Philip Schranz’s injury while on national duty. Other changes in the Rainbows’ side were the relegation of Daniel Ponce and Sergio Prendes to the bench, as well as the omission of Daniel Zerafa. Julian Galea was given a rare start, together with Dylan Micallef and Andrew Agius.

Hamrun also had Massimiliano Giusti and Mathieu Manset named among the substitutes, but Jake Grech started the match.

For a dead-rubber fixture between two teams sitting comfortably in the safety zone, the first half was open and entertaining, although bereft of many goalmouth action.

The Spartans started promisingly enough, forcing several corners, with Manolito Micallef highly involved.

Tarxien were holding their own in midfield without managing to set Nilssson free up front.

The Hamrun defence was coping well enough with Tarxien’s limited attacking threat until the Rainbows opened the scoring with a goal out of nothing on the half hour. A low cross by Dylan Micallef from the left fell to Alex Nilsson who turned and shot low from the edge of the area to beat keeper David Cassar.

Tarxien’s lead lasted only five minutes though when Hamrun restored equilibrium with Jake Grech’s low diagonal shot from inside the Tarxien area.

Hamrun ended the half strongly as they had started it. An Arab shot from the right took a wicked deflection into a corner and when Manolito Micallef cut towards the middle, his long range rising shot ended narrowly over.

Micallef retried his luck soon after the restart with another close shot that carried the same fate.

On the other end, an Andrew Agius low drive on 54 minutes, was deflected into a corner.

Hamrun looked menacing short of the hour, courtesy of some neat footwork by Jake Grech who made progress inside the Tarxien half. He played a through ball to Arab, who was blcoked by keeper Andrea Cassar.

Arab made way for Giusti after that as Tarxien also introduced Ponce for Micallef.

On 74 minutes, Hamrun should have gone in front. Giusti found space to shoot but his effort was blocked into a corner and the chance went begging.

But with both sides looking pleased with the resul, the rest of the game passed off relatively peacefully.

It might have been different had the bar not denied a Ponce effort for Tarxien in added time, but a defeat would have been harsh on Hamrun yesterday.

Hamrun’s Bosnia-Herzegovina midfielder, Igor Misan (L) gets to the ball first despite the challenge of Andrew Agius of Tarxien Rainbows.