Champions Birkirkara made a big step towards defending their Assikura Women’s League title successfully after beating Hibernians 3-0, moving seven points clear of Swieqi United.
Jose Borg’s Stripes scored a late first-half goal through an Alexis Espitia’s own goal which put them in the driving seat to secure this much-needed victory.
Birkirkara made sure of the win with late goals from Stephania Farrugia and Alishia Sultana with the latter now scoring nine goals in this campaign.
Swieqi United’s title hopes were handed a heavy blow after falling to Mġarr United in a five-goal thriller.
For the Greens, this is their first win in this Top Four phase as they cut the gap to six points from third-placed Hibernians.
It was Swieqi who took the lead when Jade Flask found the net just after four minutes.
However, Mġarr managed to turn around the score through Yulya Carella twice and Fernanda Peinado.
Late in the game, Salamatu Abdulai pulled one back for Swieqi but it was too little to late to salvage at least a point.
In the Bottom Four section, Laura Muscat scored the all-important goal to hand Valletta a narrow win over San Ġwann while Mtarfa gave Lija Athletic a run for their money before goals from Leanne Micallef and Edera Marmara secured a win for the latter.