Saints go top with 5-3 win

St Patrick 5
Rabat Ajax 3

St Patrick moved closer to Premier League football when they beat bottom side Rabat Ajax to go top of the Division One table yesterday.

Bobby Giorev's side have 29 points, one ahead of second-placed Lija and need four points from their remaining matches against Mosta and Marsa to secure promotion.

Mark Tanti's hat-trick proved too much for Rabat who despite being already relegated never threw in the towel and when trailing 5-1 they managed to find the opponents' net twice to make the final scoreline more respectable.

St Patrick's Peter Anizoba and Clayton Failla were a constant threat for the Rabat defence as their surging runs proved a hatful for the Magpies.

St Patrick made all the early running and after only three minutes, Tanti just missed the target from close in following an Anizoba cross.

A minute later, the Saints took the lead. Clayton Failla's cross-shot completely deceived Jonathan Azzopardi in the Rabat goal for his first goal with the senior team.

The Saints continued to pile up the pressure and in the 11th minute, Anizoba's cross found Silvio Sciberras on the edge of the area but his shot finished wide of the target.

St Patrick made it 2-0 in the 25th minute when Anizoba turned past Emanuel Muscat and his cross was slotted home by Tanti.

Three minutes later Anizoba netted the Saints' third when he pounced on a loose ball to shoot the ball into the the Rabat net.

Seven minutes from the break, Tanti's lob from a distance finished just over.

On 43 minutes, Joseph Farrugia's free-kick for Rabat was well kept out by Franklin Azzopardi.

Rabat took only three minutes after re-start to pull a goal back when Alan Zahra scored from a Farrugia pass.

But the Saints kept the upperhand and on 65 minutes they restored their three-goal lead. A Sciberras cross was fumbled by Rabat's Azzopardi and Tanti had the easiest of tasks to poke home.

Two minutes later, the Saints increased their lead even further when Anizoba's fine throughball unmarked Tanti who completed his hat-trick with a low shot.

Rabat still kept fighting and managed to hit the target twice in the space of five minutes.

First, in the 80th minute Clayton Failla floored Michael Micallef in the area and from the ensuing penalty-kick Ulrich Engoya converted. Then five minutes from time Engoya was again on target when he headed home substitute Adam Smeir's cross.

However, that was too late for Rabat to take something from the match as the Saints inched closer to a return in the top-flight.

St Patrick: F. Azzopardi, R. Cassar, A. Buttigieg, D. Gauci, A. Galea, M. Tanti, C. Failla, G. Failla, S. Sciberras (A. Buhagiar), P. Anizoba (K. Bonnici), S. Zerafa.

Rabat AJAX: J. Azzopardi, E. Muscat, J. Bezzina, M. Micallef, D. Falzon (A. Smeir), J. Tonna, C. Schembri, J. Caruana, A. Zahra, J. Farrugia (D. Galea), U. Engoya Onesime.

Referee: Mark Spiteri.