Michele Stellini (no.4) holding possession for Neptunes against Sirens yesterday. Photo: Matthew Mirabelli

Another enthralling, even if error-strewn contest, went the way of league leaders Neptunes Grimaldi after they edged the highly competitive Sirens Ritter Sport by the odd goal in 27, yesterday.

The result ousts the St Paul’s Bay from the top three Championship Pool which will be made up of Neptunes, San Ġiljan and Sliema.

It was a close match almost throughout, with Sergey Markoch again having to rotate his units to fill in the centre, given the absence of the suspended Tamas Molnar.

He eventually had to deal with a series of exclusions, two of them definite, which necessitated the use for the first time in a needle match of their 11th unit.

In the end, the Reds were relieved to pass an arduous test which matured thanks mainly to the crafty duo of four-goal Peter Biros and Steve Camilleri, scorer of a hat-trick, who was also deployed to shadow the dangerous Christian Presciutti.

On their part, Jordan Camilleri and Clint Mercieca fought like lions to thwart their opponents when they had possession.

The northerners were guilty of several missed extra-man opportunities, once even when they had a double-man advantage, the only consolation being the opportunism of Edward Aquilina who netted four goals, three of which from the number three position on man-up set play.

Neptunes fared slightly better, scoring four from eight. However, the exclusion of Niki Lanzon and Michele Stellini at crucial mo-ments in the game (Zach Mizzi went out earlier) saw their three- and four-goal leads clipped down to just one, even if an 14-11 advantage made them play out possession time in the last minutes.

The battling Sirens just ran out of time in the end.

In the previous match, Marsa-scala Mor€ beat Ta’ a Amigos 15-12, with the southerners turning it around in the third session after an usually strong start by their opponents.

Their protagonist, again, was Sergi Mora with Milos Maksimovic emulating the Spaniard scorewise.

By virtue of this result Pierre Borg’s team opened a nine-point lead over Otters at the top of the First Division table, with the latter having played two matches less.

Summaries

Ta’ Xbiex 12
Marsascala 15

(4-2, 2-3, 2-6, 4-4)

Ta’ Xbiex: L. Borg, L. Pace J. Cauchi, S. Aquilina, M. Agius, C. Pace, S. Gravina, K. Debattista, E. Gravina, M. Maksimovic 6, R. Attard, O. Zammit 2, P. Markoch 4.

Marsascala: D. Spiteri, J.C. Cutajar 2, S. Mora 6, C. Bonello, E. Meli 1, L. Grixti, M. Pace 2, J. Cremona 1, S. Micallef, C. Mifsud, D. Cassar 1, G. Marnitz 2, J. Cremona.

Referees: P. Giordano and M. Calabro.

Neptunes 14
Sirens 13

(3-3, 6-4, 3-3, 2-3)

Neptunes: A. Borg Cole, N. Lanzon 2, M. Lanzon, M. Stellini 2, T. Agius 1, G. Mizzi, S. Camilleri 3, J. Camilleri, A. Zarb Cousin, P. Biros 4, B. Muscat, M. Cacici, C. Mercieca 2.

Sirens: N. Grixti, Z. Mizzi, C. Presciutti 2, G. Mertens, M. Grech 1, C. Kiss 4, M. Caruana, D. Cutajar 1, J. Napier, E. Aquilina 4, L. Caruana, A. Sammut 1, M. Pisani.

Referees: P. Balzan, A. Rovida.

Playing today
17.30 Marsaxlokk vs Otters Nivea; 18.45 Valletta vs Exiles; 20.00 Sliema vs San Ġiljan.

Premier League

First Division