Hard-fought win preserves Rovers' six-point lead

Zebbug Rovers 3
Victoria Hotspurs 2

Zebbug Rovers maintained their six-point lead over Nadur Youngsters with a dramatic victory over bottom-placed Victoria Hotspurs.

Zebbug needed a late goal to secure the three points after Victoria cancelled out a two-goal deficit.

The first half was balanced with play resulting mostly in midfield.

Zebbug's best chances fell to Leandro Quinhione while Victoria, who had debutant Uwa Ogbodo well marshalled by Rovers' Magrin, went close through Ruben Mercieca.

Zebbug nosed ahead on 49 minutes when Philip Cardona hit home after being sent clear by Ruben Galea. Eight minutes later, Ruben Galea freed his brother Silvan in the Victoria area and the latter made no mistake with a low shot to double his side's advantage.

Zebbug had several opportunities to increase their tally but John Eboh failed to hit the target.

Victoria refused to hoist the white flag and on 67 minutes Chris Buttigieg's header hit the bar. Their efforts were rewarded on 77 minutes when they were awarded a penalty for a handsball by Tramboo. Victor Egere converted from the spot.

Three minutes from time, Victoria's salvaging act looked complete when Egere curled home a free-kick to restore parity. But more drama was to unfold as on the stroke of time, Zebbug were awarded a penalty when James Buttigieg was judged to have handled the ball in his area.

Mahjoub completed formalities from the spot.

More misery befell Victoria as in time added on, Ogbodo was dismissed for a second bookable offence.

Referee: George Portelli.

Nadur Youngsters 1
Kercem Ajax 0

Nadur Youngsters bounced back from their defeat against leaders Zebbug with a 1-0 win over Kercem Ajax who had beaten them in the corresponding first-round fixture.

The Youngsters fielded new signing, Alexander Simoncic, a Serbian midfielder, who had a quiet debut.

This match brought about serious repercussions for the Gozo FA who are involved in a dispute with the Malta FA after they reduced the suspension of Kercem coach Todor Raykov to one month. The Bulgarian coach had originally been banned for three months by the Malta FA.

Raykov's presence on the Kercem bench on Sunday sparked a bold reaction from the MFA who decided to withdraw its referees from officiating matches from the Gozo FA leagues.

Kercem had the best goalscoring chances early in the match, mainly through Dragomir Draganov who had an effort coming off the woodwork on 25 minutes.

But it was Nadur who scored what proved to be the winner on 45 minutes courtesy of a Mark Marlow curling free-kick.

Nadur maintained the upperhand in the second half but a series of efforts from Anthony Portelli failed to find the target.

Referee: Reno Refalo.

Sprite Division Two

Qala St Joseph and SK Victoria Wanderers obtained a point each in an entertaining 1-1 draw.

SK Victoria opened the scoring in the 18th minute through Anthony Ewurum. Simon Mizzi equalised for Qala in the 58th minute.