Stripes bounce back with a win over Sirens

Birkirkara scored twice in the first half to beat Sirens 2-0 at the National Stadium on Friday.

The Stripes therefore returned to winning ways, moving eighth, two points ahead of Sliema and two behind Balzan and Hamrun.

Lacking the suspended Flavio Cheveresan, the St. Paul’s Bay side disappointed as they suffered their third defeat this season after a fine run of five positive results.

Birkirkara opened the score on the 10th minute when Isaac Toah Ntow’s powerful shot from the left was blocked by goalkeeper David Cassar and Federico Falcone had the easiest of jobs in tapping the ball home inside the empty net off the rebound.

On the 24th, the score was 2-0 as Cain Attard’s was effort was deflected by Thiago Espindola de Paula past beat goalkeeper David Cassar.

B’KARA Andrew Hogg, Enrico Pepe, Matthew Guillaumier, Maurizio Vella, Johann Bezzina (75′ Terence Agius), Kurt Zammit, Federico Falcone (35’ Michael Mifsud)(46′ Edison Luis dos Santos), Cain Attard, Caio Henrique Prado, Oscar Matias Carniello, Isaac Toah Ntow.
Subs not used: Nicky Vella, Gianluca Bugeja, Yannick Yankam, Roderick Briffa.
Coach: Andre Paus
Asst. Coach: Jonathan Holland

SIRENS David Cassar, Ryan Grech (88′ Russell Fenech), Wellington de Oliveira, Sergio Raphael dos Anjos, Emmanuel Okoye, Adrian Borg, Abdullahi Ige Adeshina, Tagro Yves Yao (71’ Luke Sciberras), Romeu Pericles Romao, Romario Lucas Memezes, Thiago Espindola de Paula.
Subs not used: Miguel Montfort, Jake Camilleri, Daniel Sant, Luke Grech, Larken Friggieri.
Coach: Steve D’Amato
Asst. Coach: Eamon Bugeja

Referee: Fyodor Zammit
Assistant Referees: Duncan Sultana, Darko Stankovic
Fourth Official: Daniel Portelli
Yellow Cards: Romarinho, Guillaumier, Okoye, Vella
BOV Player of the Match: Isaac Toah Ntow