Valletta appear to be developing this knack of showing their best when they come across teams wearing black and white. At this time last year, the Citizens stole the limelight after eclipsing the mighty Juventus on penalties in an exhibition match to lift the Betfair Cup in front of a sizeable crowd at the National Stadium.

A year on, Valletta crossed swords with Hibernians in their first competitive match of 2009. With top spot in the fledgling Premier League table at stake and in light of the two contestants' lively form in the closing months of 2008, Wednesday's fixture generated significant interest among the fans of Valletta and Hibs.

In keeping with the vibrant atmosphere on the stands, the match unfolded into a hard-fought encounter but it was Valletta and their vociferous fans who traipsed out of Ta' Qali sporting a wide grin after claiming a 2-0 victory.

Captain Gilbert Agius gave Valletta the perfect lift-off, scoring with a well-hit strike after only five minutes. Valletta then weathered long spells of Hibs pressure and doubled their lead on the brink of half-time through Cameroon forward Doding Priso, who had earlier been cautioned after he temporarily left the pitch without the referee's permission.

Valletta's second goal, coming in the dying moments of the first half, will have hurt Hibs' confidence but the plucky Paolites raised the ante as the second period got underway.

Adrian Pulis hit the crossbar with a header but Hibs' hopes of a comeback were shattered when striker Terrence Scerri was expelled for allegedly making an obscene gesture towards Valletta fans in the Millennium Stand.

Paul Zammit, the Valletta coach, showered praise on his players for what he described as a "job well done".

"Hibs are a team I admire a lot," Zammit told reporters at the post-match news conference. "Their position at the top of the standings spoke volumes of Hibs' consistency so far this season. They are the top scorers in the Premier League and have conceded few goals.

"We knew that we had to be tactically disciplined to stop Hibs and the players heeded my instructions. I'm very proud of the boys. They have been working hard in training and it was not easy for them to tackle this tough assignment after travelling to Ancona last weekend.

"Scoring a goal in the opening five minutes was a tremendous boost and made our job easier. Our gameplan was to press forward from the start in search of an early breakthrough and it paid off. The 1-0 lead enabled us to adopt a prudent approach and try to operate with counter-attacks."

The timing of Priso's goal and Scerri's red card 12 minutes into the second half effectively killed the match as a contest but Zammit was slightly disappointed at Valletta's profligacy in front of goal in the second half.

"After Scerri was sent off, I thought we relaxed a little bit," the City coach remarked. "We missed a hatful of chances to close the game. Hibs kept fighting but we remained solid. All in all, it was a job well done by my team and this victory sets us up nicely for the remainder of the second round.

"The matches at this stage of the championship are very important for the teams who harbour ambitions of challenging for the title."

Miller, the Hibs coach, was magnanimous in defeat. "We haven't scored today, so we don't deserve to win the game," the former Malta U-21 coach said.

"However, I take my hat off to the players because they gave their all. I can't fault them for effort but it wasn't our day and life goes on.

"I'm disappointed with the result but not with the performance. If we continue to play like this, we'll be there (in the challenging positions). I thought we dominated Valletta but we weren't sharp in the final third."

Asked for his reaction to Scerri's red card, Miller replied: "I was very angry when the incident happened. When a player does that, he lets his team-mates down.

"Scerri's sending-off means that we will have several important players out for the next game (against Ħamrun on Sunday) because he will be suspended, Christian Callejas is injured and Rumen Galabov also felt a twinge in his hamstring during today's match.

"Everyone knows that I have a thin squad."

Mario Muscat, the Hibs captain, felt that the 2-0 scoreline provided a rather distorted picture of how the game went.

"Valletta scored an early goal but they got their second against the run of play," the veteran goalkeeper said. "We put them under pressure in the second half and the game might have taken a different course had Adrian Pulis's header gone in but Terrence's red card was a killer blow for us.

"I don't think Valletta were superior, the only difference was that they took their chances and we didn't."

Strongest squad

Wednesday's victory lifted Valletta one point above Hibs at the summit of the standings and extended their unbeaten start to 12 matches.

Miller believes Valletta's strength-in-depth gives them an edge over the other title contenders.

"For me Valletta are the favourites for the title because they have the strongest squad," Miller opined. "That said, there is no easy team in this league and this is a very delicate period in the season. The next fixtures will be very difficult, especially against those teams that are fighting to get out of the bottom four. Every game is a battle.

"There have been games this season that we didn't deserve to win by four goals and football travels in full circle. We have to be careful."

Zammit confirmed that Paulo Massaro, Valletta's new Brazilian signing, was not in the squad because his international transfer certificate has yet to arrive.

Questioned about the future of striker Ian Zammit, who lost his place in the team to Argentine Sebastian Monesterolo on Wednesday, Zammit said: "There were other games this season when Ian Zammit did not start. I have a squad of 20 players and all of them are in my plans. The league this year is very tough and we need a large squad to last the distance, especially when injuries and suspensions begin to bite."

Veteran Agius was under-standably in high spirits on Wednesday night after scoring a fine goal in a man-of-the-match performance for the champions but it was the team's cohesive showing that most delighted the Malta captain.

"Hibs came into this match as the most in-form team in the league and we knew that we had to be at our best to beat them," Agius said. "I'm very pleased with how we played today, it was our best performance as a team so far this season."

"When every player in the team is at the top of his game, it becomes easier for the creative players to shine," Agius added.

"I'm satisfied with my performance today not because I scored but because I carried out the instructions of the coach, especially when it came to dropping back and helping out the team when we were chasing possession. The coach asked me to counter Galabov when Hibs had the ball and then let him come after me when we were attacking and I think I did that well."

Agius's words invited Miller to make one final comment. "Players win you games," Miller claimed. "We can talk all day about tactics but ultimately it's the performance of the players that decide matches."