Futsal: Hibernians keep marching on

futsal2014nebyutaeThe top three teams of the FXDD Premier Division continued to show their late consistency after overcoming their respective hurdles to keep pushing on for the championship.

Champions Hibernians beat Pembroke Athleta 7-2 to stay at the top. After a balanced first half, which finished 2-2, in the second half Hibernians took control of the game by scoring the five goals that gave them a comfortable advantage. David Bobokhidze scored three for the Paolites with Jose Carlos Meizoso Lopes, Xavier Saliba and Jesmond Micallef scoring the other goals. Pembroke temporarily restored equilibrium through Dexter O’Brien and Florin Manea.

Photo: Copyright © Joe Borg

Second placed Luxol found little difficulty to dispose of Zabbar St. Patrick, beating them 10-4. William Barbosa and George Frendo both scored three with a brace by Florin Anton and a goal each for Ibrahim Tarik and Karl Saliba scoring the other goals. Joel Grima, Nikolay Filipov, Rosen Filipov and Radoslav Kovachev put their names on the score sheet for Zabbar.

Balzan maintained their championship hopes alive after seeing off a bold Hamrun Spartans side 7-2. It was a collective performance by the Knock-Out finalists who found their player/coach Gabriel Dobre in fine form after netting a hat-trick. A brace by Nicola del Re, Emil Raducu and Boycho Marev added more goals for Balzan.
Hamrun managed to score through Antonio Marin Guardia and Cristian Cuadros Silva.

San Gwann took advantage of Zabbar and Pembroke’s defeats to join them in fourth place after beating Qormi 9-1. Shaun Vella, Andy Mangion and Denis di Maio scored two goals each with Alan Borg, Jeanbert Gatt and Rudy Pace adding the other three goals. Michael Galea scored the only goal for Qormi.

Matthew Schembri was Żurrieq’s inspirational player, scoring five goals to help his side overcome Mosta 9-5. It was their fourth win which helped them climb up the standings, joining Mosta and Vittoriosa on the 13-point mark. Tyron Borg scored a hat-trick while Matthew Scerri got the other goal for Żurrieq.

Luqa St. Andrew’s produced one of their best performances this season after seeing off Vittoriosa Stars 6-3 with Chris Cardona producing a fine performance to help his team collect the three points. Mark Buhagiar (2), Andrew Scerri, Cardona, Clint Mifsud and Keith Mifsud scored for Luqa, Steve Ferriggi, Kurt Azzopardi and Luke Stivala replied for Vittoriosa.

Birżebbuġa St. Peter’s turned defeat into victory after fighting back from two goals behind to beat Melita 8-5.