ĦAMRUN SPARTANS 0
MOSTA 2
Kotlov 23, 75
Ħamrun Spartans’ aspirations to maintain their positive stride at the top of the league table were summarily jolted when Mosta striker Nikita Kotlov summoned all his opportunistic qualities to ram in two goals and send them reeling to their first defeat of the season.
Mosta, under Mark Miller were in no merciful mood as they battled hard against opponents passing through moments of grace. They fought boldly to put up a noose around Ħamrun's potentially slick-moving front line.
The outcome was almost inevitable. Generally, the spark and the biting edge were missing from the Spartans, yesterday. Wilfried Domoroud tried hard and through his physical presence, he often posed problems to the Mosta defence but by, and large, he rarely got the right service from his colleagues despite the hard running of Soufiane Lagzir.
Domoroud gave an early inkling of his menace when going close inside the first four minutes when Lagzir raced on the left flank and squared the ball towards the French striker who, however, only just managed to connect to the ball and Andreas Vella had no difficulty in diverting the ball.
Triston Caruana went close when he was first to a short clearance by the Mosta defence. The Ħamrun captain positioned his body perfectly to hit an excellent first-time volley which went agonisingly wide.
On 23 minutes and with Ħamrun doing all the running, Mosta cashed in on Kotlov’s opportunistic qualities when Emmanuel Bartolo dived full length to save a venomous shot by Rafael. The Spartans custodian could only divert the ball into the path of Kotlov and the defence tried unsuccessfully to cover their goalkeeper, allowing Kotlov to barge in and head the ball into the corner.
Mosta maintained the edge and Edin Murga was on the end of a thrusting move, but hit wide when well-placed.
Ħamrun's reaction was almost immediate. Vella’s unorthodox sortie on Domoroud earned a yellow card to the French man, following an accurate floating ball by Nicola Leone.
After the interval it seemed that Hamrun could bounce back with at least an equaliser. But the Blues held out. Caruana picked Lagzir in the area but his dipping shot finished over.
Mosta did what they had to do in a simple, yet effective way. Kotlov and Murga never stopped running and one sensed that Hamrun would not be able to find the opposing net.
Nothing seemed to have gone right yesterday for Manuele Blasi’s side and on 70 minutes a corner by Caruana was headed goalwards by Orestis Nikolopoulos but Mattia Cinquini could not get a decent touch on the ball to trouble the goalkeeper.
Hamrun’s woes were further compounded on 75 minutes when Kotlov went for a throughball by Matias Muchardi. The American midfielder advanced before drifting beautifully a low angled shot.
The game, as a contest, was all over now as Mosta looked more intent on conserving their comfortable lead.
Mosta's Nikita Kotlov was named BOV Player of the match.