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MATCH REPORT
After Għajnsielem
F.C.'s historic friendly match
against Hereford United,
attention quickly turned to the
struggle for the league title.
The first weekend of the month
of June offered two decisive
encounters: Victoria Hotspurs
were scheduled to play Xewkija
Tigers on Saturday; Ghajnsielem
were to play Nadur on the
following day. Xewkija Tigers
had one more match to play,
against S.K. Calypsians. The
Tigers still had an outside
chance of winning the
championship—but this involved
them winning both their matches,
and Għajnsielem losing to Nadur
Youngsters, in which case their
would be a decider between them
and the Blacks. The more likely
scenario was that either
Victoria Hotspurs or Għajnsielem
would finish on top.
The Saturday program was a first
for Gozitan football. It was the
first time that senior
competitive football was
organized on a Saturday—that was
not also a public holiday. The
other match in the program was
the second division encounter
between Xagħra United and
Victoria United. Victoria
Hotspurs beat Xewkija Tigers 1-0
with a George Camilleri goal
midway through the second half.
Xewkija were a shadow of the
team that had scrapped so
capably with the Blacks a few
weeks before. They held on in
the first half mostly thanks to
Mizzi’s saves. In the second
half, the Tigers played better
and were unlucky not to take the
lead when a John Spiteri header
was cleared off the line by
Camilleri. The all-important
goal came in the 20th
minute when from a Grech header
Mizzi allowed the ball to escape
his grasp, and George Camilleri
easily headed into an empty net.
After this goal, tempers in the
field of play flared and referee
Ritchie Casha had to interrupt
play several times. Even on the
terraces things almost got out
of hand. Some supporters started
insulting the referee after
every call; worrisomely some of
them were inciting the players
to attack the referee. Casha
blew the final whistle with the
score unchanged. This was the
signal for more abuse from the
spectators and there was even
the odd object thrown towards
the referee. Seemingly
determined to get even with
Casha a few troublemakers waited
for him outside the ground, and
the police had to intervene to
prevent harm from befalling him.
The
Hotspurs’ win piled enormous
pressure on Għajnsielem in their
final match of the league season
against Nadur Youngsters to be
played the following day. Any
slip by the Blacks and Victoria
Hotspurs would be crowned
champions for the first time
since 1966/67; Għajnsielem
needed to win to force a
decider. However, as they had
shown in their recent match
against Xewkija, Għajnsielem
could call, in times like these,
on their experience to see them
through difficult situations.
Għajnsielem had the best
possible start when two minutes
into the match they took the
lead. Toni Cauchi beat Maurice
Borg on the right and passed the
ball to Alfred Azzopardi. The
Blacks’ guest player from Hamrun
simply pushed the ball on to
Leli Refalo who was wide of him
and the latter struck home with
a shot taken from a difficult
angle. Nadur Youngsters did not
give up so readily. They were
not playing simply to honour the
fixture; they needed points to
stay out of relegation trouble.
Nadur, blessed with talented
players, rarely played as team;
in this match, however, they did
just that and with Eddie Vella
spraying accurate long balls to
his team mates, they proved to
be a tougher opponent than the
Blacks expected. Loreto Galea
and Alfred Azzopardi had a tough
time coping with Nadur’s speedy
midfielders. J. Borg set up J.
Camilleri Cassar but the latter
did not make clean contact and
Sciberras saved his shot. Nadur
came closer in the next
occasion. J. Bajada found
Camilleri, who kept the ball
rolling towards Eddie Vella. The
Malta international midfielder
beat his man and sent a good
pass to G. Muscat. The latter’s
dangerous shot was saved with
difficulty by Sciberras.
Għajnsielem responded with a
Vincent Cutajar shot that was
saved by Peter Paul Buttigieg,
and a Loreto Galea effort that
came off the crossbar; Toni
Cauchi’s effort from the rebound
missed the goal completely. Then
Refalo nearly scored. Before the
half time whistle they even
managed to equalize when
following an Eddie Vella headed
pass, P. Farrugia’s (or was it
Portelli?) lob flew off Frank
Xuereb's head and into the net.
Għajnsielem shifted the forwards
around in the second half, most
notably bringing Vincent Cutajar
into the midfield, and the move
had the desired effect. Another
important factor was
Għajnsielem’s superior
conditioning, while Nadur wilted
in the second half, the Blacks
still had enough energy to go
for the win. Twelve minutes into
the second half, Għajnsielem
took the lead. Toni Cauchi flew
down the right wing, beat
veteran Maurice Borg once again,
and passed the ball infield to
Leli Refalo. Buttigieg blocked
Refalo’s first shot with his
legs, but Refalo hit the back of
the net with his second attempt.
Nadur made an effort to draw
level but they never came close
to Sciberras’ goal. In fact they
only troubled the Blacks’ keeper
with the occasional long-range
effort. The Blacks too failed to
threaten Buttigieg when in
possession. Late in the game,
however, with Nadur taking more
risks in a last ditch effort to
score, two wonderful chances
fell at the feet of Frans Magro.
Buttigieg saved Magro’s first
effort a low drive destined to
the corner of the net. Then
Vincent Cutajar stripped Eddie
Vella of the ball in midfield,
he advanced in the Nadur half,
and as L. Camilleri was about to
tackle him he released Magro who
was in an ideal position in
front of goal. Unfortunately,
Magro shot straight at Buttigieg.
At the end of this match, there
was the recurrence of some of
the ugly scenes that took place
the day before, some police officers
even took a blow or two from
unruly supporters.
This result meant
that Għajnsielem and Victoria
Hotspurs ended the league season
on top of the first division
equal on 14 points. This
necessitated a decider to
determine who would be the
champion of the G.F.A. first
division.
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