Baldacchino shines as Greens are back on track

Floriana's rise to the top placings in the Premier League has been one of the highlights in this early part of the Premier League campaign.

A disappointing derby upset to Valletta on the opening day was followed by two comfortable victories over newly-promoted sides, Lija Athletic and St Patrick. On Saturday, Floriana all but confirmed their current good form after stunning championship hopefuls Marsaxlokk 1-0 to go second in the table, three points adrift of early pacesetters Sliema Wanderers.

Young striker Nicolò Baldacchino was one of the protagonists behind Floriana's positive run of late. The 21-year-old forward notched four goals in his team's last three outings, including Saturday's match-winner which dented Marsaxlokk's aspirations and halted their unbeaten run.

Baldacchino attributes his team's fine moment to the enthusiasm and character shown by the youth players in the squad.

"It was a great all-round performance against Marsaxlokk on Saturday," Baldacchino told The Times yesterday.

"Facing a team full of experienced and established players, few people gave us a chance of getting a positive result, let alone win.

"But the perfect teamwork and passion for the game in this team is really high at the moment. At Floriana we are a group of young players all eager to prove that we can really do well in the Premier League... Saturday's win was a clear testimony of that."

Still, Baldacchino is not getting carried away, risking to ruin what has been achieved so far.

"There's still a long way to go for us," he said. "We have three very tough fixtures coming up. We play Birkirkara on Thursday and then Sliema and Hibs next. We are looking at these matches as an ideal barometer to see how far can we go this season.

"We know we'll start as underdogs in all three occasions, so that puts little pressure on us. No doubt, we will give it our best shot and any points won will be a bonus in a bid to reach our target of playing Championship Pool football in the second phase of the competition."

For Baldacchino the opening day defeat against Valletta was hard to swallow especially after the team had lost an early two-goal advantage. However, he reckons the players have learnt valuable lessons from that experience and the results which followed were there for all to see.

"Throwing away victory the way we did against Valletta was bad, we were really down after that match. However, sometimes certain episodes in life makes one reflect and perhaps draw useful experiences even though the outcome was completely negative.

"A few days after our first match, the coach summoned us to analyze our performance. He spoke on our responsibilities on the field of play and the discussion was quite open.

"Things seem to have improved. Our tactical discipline has been superb lately and that enabled us to take home nine valuable points in succession."

Floriana started the season without chief scorer Edoardo Do Nascimento. That gave Baldacchino and Stephen Wellman the chance to impress and their partnership has become one of the cornerstones in Floriana's surge to the top.

"Having Bizu missing added more responsibilities on us to deliver the goals for the team," Baldacchino said.

"I've been playing with Wellman for various years now and we know each other very well. With Bizu fully recovered we will boost our forward line even further. There are only two places available up front and that makes competition for places even harder. Now, it's up to me to continue playing as I am to retain my place."

National team's aspirations

Playing in the national team remains Baldacchino's main ambition but at the moment he is concentrating mainly on winning a regular place in the Malta U-21 team.

His positive showings of late must have increased his chances of featuring in next month's qualifiers against Iceland and Bulgaria.

"Playing for the senior national team is the dream of any player, and I am no exception," said Baldacchino, who came off the bench in Malta U-21's 0-0 draw in Portugal and then the 0-1 defeat to Sweden at Ta' Qali.

"But at the moment my main concern is to play more regularly in the U-21 team. We had some excellent performances lately and although I'm happy for the team, I want to be more involved in our matches.

"In the end, it's the coach who decides but I guess I did enough in the Premier League to show I deserve to start one day."