Holland on mark to lift Greens' spirits

Floriana 1
Hibernians 0

Floriana's hopes of making a late assault on a Championship Pool berth received a timely boost yesterday in the shape of a 1-0 victory over champions Hibernians as the race for a top six berth is starting to hot up following some surprising results of late.

A Jonathan Holland goal 20 minutes into the second half gave the erstwhile relegation-threatened Floriana three precious points which their never-say-die attitude deserved.

While the Greens savoured a rare victory against one of the big guns, one which may indeed prove very useful indeed, champions Hibernians' chances of retaining the title suffered another blow. Inconsistency is again emerging as Hibs' major deficiency this season as Robert Gatt's troops have now conceded two defeats on the trot after their loss against Marsaxlokk.

The champions would argue that they did not deserve to lose after dominating possession but they failed to make their superiority count and paid a high price for that.

The match got off to an ugly start as Ndubisi Chukunyere, back in the Hibernians' formation after his much-acclaimed debut for Nigeria a few weeks ago, looked to suffer a serious injury after he was tackled by Sandro Zammit Fava.

Hibs must have feared that Chukunyere's return to local football had ended prematurely but after receiving medical treatment, the Nigerian livewire was back on his feet and into the thick of things.

The Paolites were the better side early on but despite dominating large swathes of possession, they rarely looked dangerous in front of goal. Grigol Gvazava's two-match ban stretched Floriana's attacking options to the limit, forcing coach Ziya Yildiz to deploy Etienne Barbara and Jonathan Holland up front.

After 21 minutes, Adrian Mifsud could have broken the boredom when the Floriana defence failed to clear Antoine Zahra's crisp pass from the right but the 2001 Footballer of the Year dithered and a fine opening was squandered.

On 28 minutes, Ian Azzopardi was on hand to deflect away a teasing Chukunyere cross-shot as the Paolites continued to call the tune. Moments later, Matthew Camilleri, the Floriana goalkeeper whose partner recently gave birth to their first child, a baby boy, earned the plaudits for a diving save to tip away Zahra's well-taken volley.

Boyko Simeonov, Floriana's latest signing, had struggled to make his mark in the first 40 minutes but he came close to opening the scoring with a swerving free-kick which was dropped by Muscat just before half-time.

The half-fit Claude Mattocks was replaced by Shaun Bajada at the start of the second half.

The pressure, though, kept coming from Hibernians, Essien Mbong heading the ball wide after receiving from Ciantar.

Despite being forced on the back foot for most of the game, Floriana never relinquished the chance of pushing forward whenever they had the opportunity to do so. Twenty minutes into the second half, they seized the lead.

A swerving free-kick by the lively Bajada from the right was somehow kept out by Hibs goalkeeper Muscat with the aid of the crossbar but, with the Paolites' defenders failing to clear, Holland rose unimpeded to nod the ball home.

Yildiz's decision to assign the combative Donovan Friggieri to mark Chukunyere had certainly benefited his team as the former Rabat midfielder curtailed the threat posed by Hibs' chief source of inspiration.

As the end of the game beckoned, Hibs, now playing with three men up front after the introduction of Terence Scerri and Miguel Mifsud, strove to pile up the pressure on their opponents but they were kept at bay by the Floriana defenders, inspired by reassuring displays from goalkeeper Camilleri and defender Riad Mynel Gango-Rtsa.

For all their territorial supremacy, Hibernians rarely threatened to redress the imbalance, only coming close through defender Aaron Xuereb whose first-time volley flashed wide of the post.

Floriana: M. Camilleri, R.M. Gango-Rtsa, C. Ciantar, I. Azzopardi, S. Zammit Fava, D. Friggieri, B. Simeonov, C. Mattocks (S. Bajada), J. Holland (N. Baldacchino), C. Schembri, E. Barbara (T. Cilia).

Hibernians: M. Muscat, K. Cassar (M. Mifsud), B. Nisevic, V. Bellia, A. Xuereb, W. Spiteri (P. Pullicino), A. Ciantar, E. Mbong, A. Mifsud, N. Chukunyere, A. Zahra (T. Scerri).

Referee: Anton Zammit.

Scorer: Holland 65th.

Yellow Cards: Zammit Fava, Gango-Rtsa, Friggieri; Xuereb, Ciantar, Chukunyere, A. Mifsud.

Player Of The Match: R.M. Gango-Rtsa (Floriana).