Round up of 2010

by Karm Galea - 31st December 2010

As we are approaching the very last moments of 2010, the Club's President Mr. Karm Galea shared some thoughts with us about this year.

In my opinion, 2010 was a year of two halves for our Club. The season 2009/2010 was a wonderful season with unforgettable moments. For example, this time last year we had a very good string of very positive results. We played fantastic football and obtained a 3-4-5 result (reminding me of the Pythagoras theorem!). In three successive matches we beat Sliema 3 - 0, Msida 4 - 1 and Qormi (the revelation of the season) 5 - 2. Then we went on to draw against Valletta 1 - 1. That was the time when many people started believing that we had a team that could win the league! Of course, I myself and other members of my Committee together with the Coach believed this from the early stages of the League.

Then, in the Championship pool, on the 28th March, we beat Valletta 1 - 0, we took the top position and never looked back. What a memorable match that was. Our brilliant striker Trevor Cilia scored the winning goal giving us a very lasting pleasure!

We won the league on 30th April when we beat Tarxien 1 - 0 putting us 4 points more than Valletta with just one game to go. Our celebrations started after that match and continued with the presentation of the Trophy after the Valletta match on the 5th May. And what celebrations we had!

As you all know, then we participated in the UEFA Champions League and in the first round qualifying, we first obtained a walk-over against Santa Coloma in Andorra and then went on to beat them 4 - 3 in Malta, thus qualifying for the second round. In the first leg of this round, we beat MSK Zilina of Slovakia 1 - 0, but we lost 0 - 3 when we played away.

Thus if I had to make a summery of the 2009/2010 season, I am sure you all agree that this was a fantastic season. For me personally, this was more than special because in my first year of presidency we won the League (not my merit!) and this, I was told, was the first that it happened in Malta. We made it to the UEFA Champions League and we went through to the second qualifying round and beat our opponents in the first leg - this also being the first time for a Maltese team to win a leg of the second round qualifying. Furthermore, for the first time in the history of our Club one of our players, the clever Shaun Bajada, was voted the Footballer of the Year by the MFA.

As you know, the above happened in the first half of the year which coming to its end. Unfortunately, in the second half of the year, basically starting from the Super Cup match against Valletta, we were plagued with injuries and suspensions and other negative incidents. We were also unlucky with our foreign players mostly because of injuries. The team has not as yet been able to play that fantastic football that we played last season. However, we have started to improve as can be seen from our last match against Hibernians. I still believe that we will continue to improve and challenge again for the League title.

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