Birkirkara return to winning ways

by Ayrton Galea - 13th December 2010

Birkirkara returned to winning ways and registered an important victory today, when they had managed to beat Floriana with a solitary goal by Patrick Borg.

This is goal is more valuable than it might look, as besides being the winning goal for Birkirkara, this was the first goal for Patrick Borg with our Club's shirt. Patrick told us "Playing with my local team, Birkirkara, is something beautiful. This goal for me is the best moment in my personal football career."

Birkirkara were not in their best form and undoubtedly it was not their best game, but one should mention the number of players missing for the yellow-reds. Andrew Decesare, Esequiel Lovizon, Nikola Vukanac, Ryan Harding and Trevor Cilia were all ruled-out injured. Joseph Zerafa was suspended for this match as he had collected four yellow cards.

It was a rather boring game for long stretches, with the two sides failing to impress and goals-action were few.

On the 38th minute, Pablo Doffo served Monalito Micallef and his close-range effort was parried by the Scottish goalkeeper, Michael Fraser.

One minute later, a dangerous cross-shot by Emiliano Latter was punched in style by Lofti Saidi.

The first half ended in a goal-less draw.

Although the second half did not reach any impressive levels, it was more entertaining than the first half, and produced more goal-scoring opportunities.

Mid-way through the second half, Birkirkara had a golden opportunity when Karl Pulo, who had replaced Alan Tabone on the 62nd minute, was served by Emiliano Lattes. Karl Pulo's close-range attempt was blocked by the goalkeeper, who seemed to fail to grasp the ball, and Michael Galea tapped the ball in with the linesman pointing to the middle of the field signaling a goal. However, the referee had other thoughts, and instead rewarded Floriana a freekick for a foul on the goalkeeper.

But the goal was in the air, and Birkirkara were not denied on the 76th minute. A freekick by Emiliano Lattes was perfectly met by Patrick Borg. The Floriana defence tried to clear the danger but it was too later as the ball had already crossed the goal-line.

.

After this goal, Birkirkara managed to kept the lead till the final whistle to take home the three precious points.

With this win, Birkirkara climbed to 3rd place with seventeen points, one point ahead of Hamrun Spartans and two points ahead of Floriana.

comments powered by Disqus