SLIEMA WANDERERS 1

Farrugia 90

TARXIEN RAINBOWS 0

Jean Paul Farrugia came off the bench to head home a dramatic winner for Sliema Wanderers against Tarxien Rainbows to ensure Andrea Pisanu enjoyed a winning debut as coach of Sliema.

Sliema were off to a bright start and they came close twice inside the first five minutes.

John Mintoff made headway on the right and his cross was deflected into the path of Gilmar who volleyed over.

On five minutes Federico Vasilchik released Claudio Zappa on the right but the Italian schemer’s angled drive was pushed away by Tarxien goalkeeper Rudy Briffa.

The Blues failed to keep that early momentum and they had to wait until the 28th minute to threaten again. Gilmar’s delivery from a free-kick was met by Kurt Shaw but his header was deflected just wide.

A minute before the break, Matthew Tabone came to Tarxien’s rescue when he cleared off the line Mintoff’s cross-shot.

After the interval, Pisanu withdrew Mark Scerri and roped in Antonio Stelitano as he looked to add more steel to his team’s engine room.

Sliema again came close on 52 minutes when Juri Cisotti served Gilmar, who however, fired over.

Five minutes later, Cisotti tried his luck himself with an audacious cross-shot with the ball just missing the target.

Despite being in total command of play, Sliema still were looking short of ideas and it was no surprise that Pisanu brought on Satariano and Jean Paul Farrugia in a bid to boost his team’s attacking impetus.

And his decision to rope in Farrugia turned out to be the winning card as in the 90th minute the Malta striker latched to Cisotti’s free-kick to head the ball past Briffa and earn three priceless points for the Wanderers

Juri Cisotti of Sliema Wanderers was named BOV Player of the match.