Birkirkara maintain pressure on leaders

A comfortable 5-1 win over next-from-bottom Raiders enabled Birkir-kara to maintain the pressure on league leaders and defending champions Hibernians.

In Sunday's other match, Mosta met no difficulty on their way to an easy 6-0 win over lowly Rabat Ajax.

Birkirkara never gave Raiders a minute's respite during the opening half. The Stripes were already 3-0 ahead going for the break thanks to goals from Catherine Camilleri, Eleonora Agliano and Therese Briffa.

As the second half got underway, Birkirkara added two more goals to their tally, Camilleri and Agliano again on the scoresheet for their team. Raiders' Marcia Zammit hit her side's consolation goal five minutes from time.

Birkirkara are two points behind Hibernians in the standings after eight matches but have a good chance of leapfrogging their rivals when the two teams clash in the opening fixture of Sunday's programme.

Mosta had a superb opening half against Rabat. They scored five times to make sure of their fourth victory from eight outings thus far. Sadia Mizzi and Jane Coates scored a brace each, the other goals for Mosta coming from Lydia Saliba and Victoria Saliba.

Standings: Hibernians 22; Birkirkara 20; Mosta 13; Melita 10; Raiders 4; Rabat A. 0.

Top scorers: Dorianne Theuma (Hibs) 12 goals; Sarah Caruana, Joanne Vella (Hibs), Eleonora Agliano (Birkirkara) 7 goals.

Sunday's matches: 9 a.m. Birkirkara vs Hibernians; 10.30 a.m. Mosta vs Melita.