In 1967, the Maltese Social Club of New York donated a very handsome trophy to the Malta FA to be played for annually by the champions and the FA Trophy winners.
This competition replaced the old Scicluna Cup and the Testaferrata Cup and was there-fore the equivalent of the present Super Cup competition.
The first edition, held on February 25, 1968, was contested by Hibernians and Floriana.
The final was played in the morning in glorious sunshine. Both teams responded well to the conditions as the game developed into a duel between Floriana’s finesse and the powerful play of Hibs. At the end, the Greens’ craft won the day.
Despite never reaching great heights, the first half produced enough thrills and excitement to the keep the crowd on its toes.
Goalmouth action was the order of the day during this phase of the game.
However, the frequent penalty-box scrambles were not the result of skilful play by the forward lines but owed to the mistakes of the two shaky defences.
Then, there was an incident in which Victor Cassar, of Hibs, and Willie Vassallo, of Floriana, came to blows. The game was controlled by referee Richard Stagno Navarra who did not hesitate to show the two misbehaving players the red card.
The game had a pulsating start. In the early minutes, a Galea free-kick was headed towards goal by Vassallo. Tony Attard hesitated and as Freddie Mizzi delayed his sortie, Grech nipped in to head the ball over the advancing Hibs goalkeeper.
Grech, however, was hurt in the action and was carried off on a stretcher as his participation came to an abrupt end.
Hibs reacted strongly and a shot hit the bar with goalkeeper Charlie Zerafa beaten. Edward Aquilina was quick to dash in and hit home the rebound but the ‘goal’ was disallowed for an offside infringement.
Hibs, however, were not to be denied and on the half-hour, they pulled level.
Johnnie Privitera rose above friend and foe to head home the equaliser.
The second period started with Frankie Micallef winning the ball in midfield. He advanced unhin-dered, tapped the ball sideways to Louis Arpa who passed back to Micallef who hit home via the upright. The goal had an element of luck about it but Floriana deserve credit for creating an excellent move.
Leading 2-1, the Greens retreated to defend their slender lead. Hibs now threw caution to the wind in an attempt to gain an equaliser, but, as is often the case in such situations, it was Arpa who scored a fine individual goal for Floriana.
He dribbled past Louis Theobald and as Mizzi came out of his goal to narrow the angle, Arpa shot low into the net.
Floriana were now playing out time as Hibs made some more half-hearted efforts. With less than a minute remaining, Hibs reduced the arrears.
Aquilina hit an inswinging corner and Arpa inadvertently headed backward into his net as he tried to clear.
This goal, however, did not really matter because Floriana barely had time to kick off before the referee sounded the final whistle.