The Malta Under-17 side lost 0-1 to Northern Ireland in the first match from the Easter Tournament organised by the Malta Football Association. The match was played at the Gozo Stadium.
The event is part of the programme of preparation of the Malta youth team which will be participating in the forthcoming Euro Championship of the category. The build-up is necessary so that as many players as possible are assessed within a bigger scale of international opposition.
Ben Doherty scored the all-important goal on 22 minutes.
In another match, Cyprus defeated Greece 2-1.
Stavrin Konstantinou put Cyprus ahead on 58 minutes and Fytos Kyriakou doubled the score on 65 minutes. Anastasios Dimitriadis pulled one back on the 80th when he converted a penalty.
The tournament continues on Saturday and comes to an end on Monday.
Saturday 30th March 2013
Venue: Centenary Stadium
10:30 Malta vs Greece
Venue: Training Grounds
10:30 N. Ireland vs Cyprus
Monday 1st April 2013
Venue: National Stadium
13:30 Malta vs Cyprus
Venue: Centenary Stadium
13:30 Greece vs N. Ireland
MALTA Mikhail Sciberras (55′ Jamie Azzopardi), Daniel Buckle, Nick Ghio, Connor Borg, Neil Spiteri, Aidan Friggieri (80′ Mauro Sultana), Jake Grech, Joseph Mbong (41′ Kyrian Nwoko), Juan Carlos Corbalan (54′ Matthew Guillaimier), Mirco Vella, Jacob Walker (33′ Gianfranco Micallef).
N. IRELAND Patrick Molloy, Ben Hall, Callum Byers (41′ Lorcan Mallon), Ethan Sweeney (64′ William Donaghy), Ben Doherty, Emmet Hargan (64′ Joshua Lynch), Gary Larvery, Cormac Deery (51′ Eoin Mckeown), Harry Clarke (58′ Andrew Mooney), Jonathan Dallas (74′ Jamie Dunn), Jordan Thompson.
Referee: Mario Apap
Assistant Referees: Paul Apap, Sammy Attard
Photos: Copyright © Joe Bajada/MFA