Under 17s Beaten by Valletta

by Jonathan Spiteri - 4th March 2013

After losing to league leaders Paola Hibs last weekend, Birkirkara were pitted against Valletta, who are in second place and still much in the fight for the title. It was surely a very difficult game for our boys, but faired pretty well until the opening goal arrived. From then on it was an uphill struggle in order to get back into the match, something which did not materialise with the Citizens sealing the victory with two more goals in the second half.

The Stripes were determined not to commit the same mistakes that led them to a somewhat heavy defeat in the match prior to this. The discipline, aggressiveness, organisation and lack of fear of the more quoted opponents were there for all to see right from the kick off, and Valletta were finding it hard to break down the resilient Birkirkara defense. All this changed though as, following a controversial decision by the referee to let play go on after what seemed to be a foul by the Valletta forward on his marker, the same striker took advantage of a one on one situation with our goalkeeper and drew first blood. The game remained in balance until the half-time whistle.

The YellowReds were really disappointed to be trailing after a solid display and were eager to get the second half going as they knew they were capable of making up for the disadvantage they found themselves in. Some tactical changes helped the team to be more adventurous in attack, and there were clear signs of improvement during the first 20 minutes of the second half, but once again all this was undone by an individual mistake at the back where one of our defenders forgot about the ‘safety first' policy, tried to control a long ball and ended up being caught in possession by one of Valletta's forwards who cashed in to make it 2-0. This was a hammer blow for Birkirkara and were unable to stage a reaction of any sort, with the Whites sealing the issue with a third goal in the final stages of the game.

Headcoach Mr Marko Glumac reactions were a carbon copy of those after the previous match: “Valletta were surely the better team overall, with very good players in their ranks, but our boys showed great fighting spirit and were not intimidated in any way by the glamour of their opponents. Unfortunately we got punished for every small mistake, even when it was not even our own fault! Hopefully we will be more lucky and get better results in the remaining matches”, the next of which will be versus Mosta on Sunday 24th March at the Zebbug Grounds, kick off time 13:00.

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