The 2019-20 season may be only 90 minutes old but it has already provided enough evidence that this year’s campaign is set to be another balanced and unpredictable championship.

In fact after Matchday 1, Balzan and Floriana were the only from the so-called big guns to snatch maximum points.

Gżira and Hibs were  held to a draw by Ħamrun Spartans and newcomers Gudja respectively while the biggest upset of the weekend was created by Premier League newcomers Sta Lucia who beat champions Valletta 3-2 at the Centenary Stadium on Friday.

During the last few weeks, there has been a lot of positive talk on the potential of this young Sta Lucia side who managed to produce some eye-catching performances and when the real action started, they certainly confirmed that hype with a vibrant performance against Valletta.

Wilkerson Gomes and Rei Tachikawa tore up apart the Citizens with their pace and power, particularly in the first half. After the break, Valletta did fight back but the Saints held on to a famous win.

Coach Oliver Spiteri hailed the performance of his players and said that the secret behind their success was that they approached the match the right way.

“Obviously we are delighted with the result on our debut in the Premier League,” Spiteri told the Times of Malta.

“This result comes after long weeks of hard work during pre-season and the players’ efforts duly paid off. We knew that we are capable of giving Valletta a good run for their money.

“Here at Sta Lucia we have a very young team, with an average age of 21.8 years so it was imperative for us to approach the match in the right manner.

“Obviously we have great respect for Valletta, who are the Malta champions, but I think we surprised them with our vibrant play in the first half and to be fair we could have easily went into the interval with a bigger margin.

“After the interval, Valletta stepped up their game and our inexperience of such key matches saw us suffer a bit in the last part of the match but we held on and I think that we deserved to take all three points.”

The Sta Lucia coach said that it was important now for his players not to get carried away with their success over Valletta and said that there was still more work to be done from his players in the coming weeks, particularly with a match against Gżira United coming up this week.

“We have only played one match and we have in front of us a long and difficult season, with our season remaining that to maintain our status in the Premier League,” Spiteri said.

“The win against Valletta was a great boost but now it’s important that we put that result behind us and start focusing on our match against Gżira who are also one of the favourites for this year’s title.

“When you achieve a win against team like Valletta you run the risk of getting complacent but I will do all I can to ensure the players keep their feet rooted to the ground. We have a good group of players and only those that show the right commitment and determination will play the next match.”

The Sta Lucia coach admitted that the fact that his team have very little pressure on them to get a result was an advantage against Valletta.

“Our squad is made up of players who are keen to succeed in their career and are very ambitious. They are ready to work hard and that is a great thing to have as a coach,” the former Naxxar and Balzan coach, said.

“Nobody expected anything from us against Valletta and that enabled the players to approach the match with little pressure and they could express themselves.

“We have a very talented bunch of players here who train twice a day and are always improving. Certainly, I can’t see why some of my Maltese players cannot go on and represent the national team.”

Predictions

The Sta Lucia coach said looking at the results achieved last weekend this year’s championship will be very difficult to predict and has a clear view of where his team must improve.

“If you look at the results at the weekends the majority of the teams outside the big guns have shown that they mean business,” he said.

“You have teams like Sirens, Gudja and Senglea who all got positive results so we know that we have a great challenge ahead of us.

“I think one area that we need to work on is to try and be able to control matches, especially in the latter stages of the match.

“We tend to be anxious and that comes from our lack of experience so we need to work more mentally to be able to go through difficult moments.”