Saints blast to the top as big guns falter

The 2006/07 Premier League is only two weeks old but the ten teams in the top flight will observe a short break until September 9 to make way for the national team and the opening Euro 2008 qualifiers.

This afternoon, national coach Dusan Fitzel will name his squad for the Group C matches - at home vs Bosnia Herzegovina on Saturday and 'away' to Turkey (in neutral Frankfurt) four days later.

After two championship match-days, the standings have an unfamiliar look about them with top spot occupied by surprise package Msida St Joseph.

Last weekend, the Saints created the biggest shock so far when they routed Birkirkara 5-1 to remain the only team in the division with a 100 per cent record.

The result was totally unexpected as Msida came into the match on the back of a laboured 1-0 win over modest Marsa while Birkirkara looked on a high after an opening day win over the ever-sturdy Marsaxlokk.

But on Saturday, Msida completely threw away the form book as Patrick Curmi's team were simply in a class of their own.

Nigerian aces Daniel Nwoke and Ibrahim Babatunde tore apart the Stripes' defence to condemn the champions to their worst defeat in the Premier League since the 0-6 reverse to Sliema Wanderers on April 16, 1995.

Msida are leading the standings two points ahead of Valletta and Floriana who seem to have put last season's woes behind them with an eye-catching start to the season trek.

The two neighbouring rivals had high-scoring wins on their league debut, the Citizens hitting five goals past Pietà and the Greens upstaging Hibernians 4-1. Last week, they squared off after sharing four goals in a tremendous derby atmosphere at the stadium.

Sliema failed to repeat last season's impressive start to the championship, eight wins from their opening nine matches.

Edward Aquilina's team were far from impressive this month, just managing to scrape past St George's 1-0 before suffering a disappointing 2-1 defeat to Hibernians, still not firing on all cylinders.

Despite some high-profile signings in the transfer season, Marsaxlokk lost the clash against Birkirkara but bounced back with a 5-0 hammering of the luckless Pietà.

New coach Brian Talbot will have to redress his team's disciplinary record though as they ended both matches with ten men following red cards to Gareth Sciberras and Luke Dimech.

Pietà are feeling the toll of failing to make significant squad reinforcements after two disastrous outings which saw them conceding no fewer than 10 goals... a tough season looms for them.

St George's and Marsa have yet to score a goal even though their level of commitment is higher than many had anticipated.

But the talk of the town so far has been the emergence of Msida as early pacesetters. On Saturday, they silenced their critics by the way they brushed aside the champions' resistance.

"That 5-1 result confirmed the good work put in by the club during the past weeks," Curmi told The Times yesterday.

"We have assembled a competitive squad. The signings of some experienced players have rendered the team more solid... we've got different options now. The early goal against Birkirkara gave us a huge boost and from then on we never looked back... my players were always in control."

Saturday's result had historic value for Msida. It was the first time that the Saints had the better of Birkirkara in the Premier League as Msida chalked up their best start to the championship, and, more importantly, put the team on top of the standings for the first time ever.

Negative sequence

"During the past few years, Msida suffered damaging defeats at the hands of Birkirkara, including last season's 5-0, 5-2 and 4-1 (twice) upsets. Birkirkara also beat Msida in the club's only FA Trophy final appearance in 2005 (2-1). I guess, it was about time we put one over them," Curmi said.

"But now we have to keep going. Pietà (Sept. 9), Valletta (Sept. 17) and Marsaxlokk (Sept. 24) are up next and we have to do well in these matches as well. Beating Birkirkara did not change anything for us as our only plan is to qualify for the Championship Pool."

The two-week break could not have arrived at a more ideal time for Stephen Azzopardi, the Birkirkara coach, as he seeks to identify what went wrong during Saturday's debacle.

"That was a very disappointing performance," Azzopardi said.

"After the Super Cup win and then beating Marsaxlokk in our league opener our level of concentration dropped and we paid dearly for that.

"Besides, the players failed to put into practice our game plan which was to try and prevent as much as possible that the ball arrives into the feet of their foreign players. We failed to cope with their pace and flair and the result is there for everyone to see."

Azzopardi assured the fans Birkirkara will be back to their best.

"During this short break we will be making a soul-searching exercise to see what went wrong," he said. "We could also make some changes to the squad.

"Last season, we also endured a heavy defeat against Hibs (5-2) early in the season and our response was a great run that took us to the championship.

"The 5-1 defeat to Msida badly hurt our pride. Now, I'm expecting the players to respond in a positive way and work hard to put the team back on track."

Fixtures

September 9
4 p.m. Marsa vs Hibernians
6 p.m. Birkirkara vs St George's

September 10
4 p.m. Pietà vs Msida
6 p.m. Floriana vs Sliema Wanderers

September 11
7 p.m. Valletta vs Marsaxlokk